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Spider-Man: Brand New Day shows again that Marvel Studios can’t let Spidey have his own movie

No character suffers more from being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than Spider-Man

Features by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Fri Jul 31 2026

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Tom Holland is about to do something that no other Spider-Man actor has ever done – get a fourth solo movie in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Of course, it is also his seventh appearance as Peter Parker in the MCU, but that is what happens when you are a company’s most popular character, right? Spider-Man has long been the face of Marvel Comics, but that reputation has meant Marvel Studios has never really given us a stand-alone Spider-Man movie. No character has suffered more from being in the MCU than Spider-Man.

Image credit: Marvel Studios

I’m not even talking about the usual nods to the wider MCU that nearly every movie has had; every Spider-Man movie from Marvel Studios has been more of a team-up film than a story about our friendly neighborhood wallcrawler. Spider-Man: Homecoming gave Tony Stark an inordinate amount of screen time. Far From Home featured Nick Fury as a central character to remind us that this was the MCU we are talking about. The closest Tom Holland has had to getting his own Spider-Man movie thus far has been Spider-Man: No Way Home, which still featured two other actors playing Spider-Man and had Doctor Strange as a major driver of the plot. I love all these movies but they always feel a little overstuffed for what should be a stand-alone film.

Now we’re getting Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Here, we have both The Punisher and The Hulk, plus what appears to be The Hand popping up to give Spider-Man a hard time. That is three different figures, two of which are making their movie MCU debuts. That is even ignoring the character that Sadie Sink is playing, which we won’t mention here but is probably the worst-kept secret in cinema right now. That is a very crowded New York City for Peter Parker to contend with.

Why can’t Marvel Studios allow Spider-Man to have a stand-alone movie? Part of it has to do with the fact that he makes them money. More money than any other series within the MCU, in fact. Our illustrious Editor-In-Chief did the math, and Spider-Man movies make more for every dollar Marvel Studios spends on them than any other film, and that includes heavy hitters like The Avengers and Iron Man. Giving him more toys to play with – and fans more reasons to pay attention – is simply good business.

Image credit: Marvel Studios

However, I think the answer really goes back to how Marvel has always viewed Spider-Man. He is the face of the company more than any other character, the pillar of Marvel Comics that has given them consistent sales and, importantly, the pop culture penetration that gives Marvel relevance outside their core comic book fans. Even my father, who has never picked up a comic book in his life, knows the Spider-Man theme song. Attaching him to other characters is kind of standard operating procedure for Marvel, and that behavior has bled through to the movies.

I understand why Marvel keeps pushing other characters into their Spider-Man movies, but it doesn’t alleviate the frustration at seeing one of my favorite characters seem overwhelmed and overshadowed in his own movies. As long as Spider-Man is positioned at the heart of the MCU, he will always suffer the most from being part of the MCU.

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