Spider-Man: Brand New Day is off to a record-smashing start. The film pulled in an estimated $355 million domestically over its opening weekend, the largest domestic opening in Spider-Man history and the second-biggest of all time, trailing only Avengers: Endgame. Critics have been just as enthusiastic, with the film holding a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 98% audience score to match. Much of that praise centers on how lived-in this version of New York feels within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the Hulk (Mark Rufallo), the Punisher (John Bertham), and the New Avengers all move through the story seamlessly, each one folded into the plot with a real reason to be there.
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That sense of a connected universe extends into the film’s background details, too. Eagle-eyed fans spotted a tattered Wilson Fisk mayoral and Vigilante Taskforce campaign poster taped to a dumpster in one of the film’s alley sequences, a direct nod to Fisk’s run as mayor during Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. Will Dixon, credited as Graphics Assistant on Brand New Day, revealed on social media that those posters came straight from the Born Again art department, passed along while the show’s second season was still shooting. By his own account, he was one of the few people on the Brand New Day crew who grasped just how significant that handoff was at the time. It’s a small touch, but it’s the kind of connective tissue that makes the gap between Marvel’s TV shows and its movies feel a lot smaller than it used to.
After being prompted by the Fisk posters, Dixon also shared other small Easter eggs found in the movie. The chili Frank Castle eats is called “Gerry’s original chili,” a homage to Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway — the label, sadly, is not shown in the movie. Dixon also developed a corn dog advertisement that was placed in the background of a few scenes, a nod at Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Cameos and References Make the MCU Exciting Again
At its core, Brand New Day is about Peter (Tom Holland) learning to let people back in after No Way Home left him isolated and forgotten by the world. But the film also doubles as a statement of intent for where Marvel Studios wants to go from here, trading a crowded release calendar for fewer projects, a shift Disney CEO Bob Iger has publicly attributed to Marvel having “lost a little focus by making too much.”
Nothing in Brand New Day feels like filler, which is impressive given how packed the movie is. For instance, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova gives the New Avengers a real presence in the film, offering Spider-Man both a blunt reality check about where street-level threats rank against what her team handles and a genuine break in the case. Meanwhile, the Department of Damage Control’s current role tracking and containing superpowered threats gets fleshed out through its pursuit of Jean (Sadie Sink) and Sara Grey. The film even touches on how the MCU now handles its supervillains behind bars.
The bigger swings land, too. Bruce Banner’s more volatile, “Savage” side resurfaces after years of him keeping the Hulk under control, triggered when Jean messes with his mind mid-film. Finally, the film’s central threat turns out to be Jean Grey, marking the story’s clearest gesture yet toward folding mutants into the MCU proper. Brand New Day is the kind of movie that works completely on its own as a story, while still making the wider universe feel worth following. That’s the type of project Marvel Studios should keep making in the future.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Television
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