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Spider-Man: Brand New Day's ending is meant to be ambiguous, for the filmmakers' sake

Destin Daniel Cretton says that the final scene of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is meant to fill you with joy even if it doesn't explain itself.

Image credit: Marvel Studios

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Wed Aug 05 2026

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day is full of the kind of things that will fuel fan theories from now until the next time we see Spider-Man on the big screen – or the X-Men, for that matter. But nothing is causing more debate than the final scene in the movie. No, not the nothing-burger of a post-credits scene. I’m talking about the scene between Peter Parker and his best friend, Ned, which is beautifully and infuriatingly ambiguous. According to the film’s director, that ambiguity is part of the point.

Spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow.

There are plenty of things to talk about in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but online chatter has been focused heavily on the final scene. In it, Peter Parker encounters his best friend Ned, who still has no memory of their friendship thanks to Doctor Strange’s spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter goes to Ned, introduces himself, and the pair do the secret handshake they performed countless times over the previous three movies. Ned seems to have a moment of clarity, smiles, and says, “Peter!”

And then the movie cuts to black.

So does Ned actually remember Peter, or was his body just performing the motions through muscle memory? Is he weirded out by the display, or did it unlock his memories of their life together? We don’t know, and director Destin Daniel Cretton doesn’t want to stop anyone from theorizing by sharing his opinion.

“Listen, we’re definitely not trying to torture people with ambiguity,” Cretton said in a recent interview as the Internet was being tortured by the ambiguity of the ending of his movie. “I feel like what’s very clear is the emotion you’re left with when we cut to black. To me, there’s a very clear feeling of joy – just enough – and then you cut to black. I have seen the theories, and I love the theories. I think they’re so cool, and I don’t want to stop that conversation by putting my opinion in the middle of it.”

Cretton goes on to imply that even he doesn’t know the correct answer here. “Knowing there will be another movie, that conversation will continue in the writer’s room as we figure out — if we figure out — what we’re going to do next. That’s what’s so cool about these movies. The fans are so engaged. Everybody on our side is listening to everything. Those are conversations we’ve had in the writers’ room as well, and I think it’s fun that everybody is participating not just in analyzing this movie, but potentially in creating whatever happens in the next one.”

So be careful about the theories you post online about Spider-Man: Brand New Day; the writers are listening, and they could turn it into the inevitable Spider-Man 5.

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