Marvel’s New TV Show Just Made Me So Much More Excited About Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Jon Watts went from the micro-budgeted horror film Clown to the slightly higher budgeted but still indie Cop Car. It was that latter film that showed he was aces with coming-of-age stories and, thus, it was the one that got him the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man gig. And, because Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home are all so wonderful, it’s clear he was the right choice for the material. This is also why it disappointed many when it was announced that he would not be returning for this year’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

But when Destin Daniel Cretton was confirmed as the one who would be picking up the mantle, worries were assuaged. After all, he had just proven that he could take a relatively niche Marvel character and introduce him in one of the very best entries of Phase Four.

Why Was Destin Daniel Cretton’s Announcement As the Director of Brand New Day Exciting & Why Is It Now Even More Encouraging?

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has some fantastic and fluid action sequences, and they’re undoubtedly exciting. But the reason it stands as one of the best MCU adventures of the past five years is that it’s all about character. We get one of the most compelling dynamics in the franchise’s history in Xu Wenwu’s relationship with his children.

He’s a father who has driven away his children with an obsession, and it’s an obsession that is not only unravelling him but is also now threatening the Earth. That’s a compelling narrative, which makes the final battle in Ta Lo so compelling. It’s not one of those trademark MCU finales where something big is falling through the sky towards the Earth. It is kind of the other MCU cliche of a hero fighting what amounts to an inverse version of his or herself. But in this case, it works, because it’s a son attempting to save his father from making a horrible mistake.

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There’s another aspect of Shang-Chi that shows just how great Cretton is at taking a character and making them endearing to the audience. And, in this case, he took a character who amounted to nothing more than a controversial joke (not in terms of content, but in terms of fandom reaction) and began to flesh them out. That would be Trevor Slattery, who is still a bit of a punchline here, but we get to see him have a lovely friendship with his little hundun buddy Morris.

This was something Cretton continued in his most recent contribution to the MCU: Wonder Man. One of the best Disney+ Marvel shows, Wonder Man is another example of how Cretton is more focused on crafting memorable characters and situations that force them to change than bombastic set-pieces. We see Slattery develop the most important relationship of his life with the title character.

He starts out the series as the pawn of the Department of Damage Control, which is in line with what he’s always been, which is a goofy, too-trusting gullible fellow. But as the series progresses, we see him making his own decisions, and they’re all made with a kind heart. It’s in Wonder Man that we finally grow to understand who Slattery is as a person, and it’s because of that I’m convinced Cretton is as ideal for Spider-Man as Watts was.

No Way Home was the most action-packed Spidey movie thus far. It worked very well, but it also ended on a note that made it clear a minor rebooting was in order. Peter Parker has erased himself from the minds of everyone who has ever known him. He is now soul-crushingly alone, and that’s not a position we want the most likable MCU character to be in. But it was his choice, and like Slattery’s final choice in Wonder Man, it’s an altruistic one that comes at great personal cost.

We’re now following Parker where he was at the beginning of Homecoming. It’s a case of ten steps forward and eleven steps back, because now he doesn’t even have Tony Stark’s guidance or tech. He’s basically the same street-level superhero he was in the video Stark showed him in Captain America: Civil War.

However, there’s been a trade-off that arguably puts him in a position of even greater disadvantage. He’s lost Stark, he’s lost Aunt May, and now he’s lost both his best friend and his girlfriend. He may have learned things throughout his years as Spider-Man, but his heart has been shattered.

That is a great way to start this new era of Spidey film history. And because we know Cretton knows how to cultivate a character and make them fully lovable, it will be thoroughly interesting to see how he does that with an already beloved character who is now in a place where they have every right to be down in the dumps.

Plus, Cretton clearly loves the MCU. He can sprinkle in deep cut references that don’t come across as glaring fan service. He incorporates them in ways that don’t distract from the momentum of the scene or the narrative as a whole. It seems likely he’ll continue to do that with this webslinger movie. And right now, with the MCU having lost some of its momentum, it’s great to have an auteur who not only crafts great, character-focused stories, but has passion for what they’re doing, as well. If the MCU needs anything right now, it’s passion.

Do you think Cretton was the perfect choice? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!