Spider-Man: Brand New Day was rewritten several times before filming

What happened

Chris McKenna told The Bulwark that Spider-Man: Brand New Day went through a long development process. IGN summarizes the conversation as a series of versions in which different storylines were discussed, dropped, and later revisited before the film settled into its current direction. That fits the way big superhero movies often cycle through multiple scenarios, but in this case the source specifically says there were concrete alternatives on the table before production moved forward.

The source mentions early plans involving other villains and a British alter ego. The script was also reportedly adjusted to avoid using characters that Sony later deployed in its own Spider-Universe films. As a result, Brand New Day was reportedly revised multiple times during development. The available text does not name the cut villains or identify which British alter ego was meant, so those parts of the process remain unspecified for now.

IGN also reports that choosing the villain remained difficult and that Jean Grey was only locked in as late as September 2024, less than a year before filming began. The provided source does not expand on that point, so it is unclear whether this was a transcription error, a loose reference, or an internal development note. Still, it is specific enough to show that the film was being creatively adjusted very late in development.

McKenna also said the idea of a “metamorphosis” was on the table early, then dropped, and later brought back. According to him, people then reacted as if it were a new concept, even though it had already been part of development earlier on. That paints a picture of a production in which not only characters, but core ideas, shifted multiple times before the film reached its current form.

Background

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is being positioned by Sony and Marvel as a smaller follow-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home. Sony’s official synopsis says Peter Parker is fighting crime full time in a world that no longer remembers him, while his old friends have moved on. Marvel’s film page also says the movie arrives in theaters on July 31, 2026, with Tom Holland returning in the lead role.

The available source is mainly about the behind-the-scenes development. The names of the cut villains, the British alter ego, and the exact changes made around Sony’s Spider-Universe are not specified in this version. What is clear is that the film was rewritten in multiple phases and that the makers had to account for other Sony projects in the same broader universe. That makes Brand New Day’s development different from a standard sequel, because the script choices had to be aligned not just creatively, but strategically as well.

The source also emphasizes McKenna’s role as a writer. In the provided material, he is described as having co-written all of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films with Erik Summers, with credits still to come on Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. That context explains why his comments on Brand New Day’s development matter: he is not speaking as an outsider, but as a writer who has already worked on multiple Marvel projects centered on the same lead actor.

Sony’s official summary and Marvel’s page also confirm that the film takes place after No Way Home and that Peter Parker is once again at the center of a story where the people around him no longer know him. That premise lines up with IGN’s summary of the film’s development history, in which McKenna says the team had to keep searching for a version that fit both the characters and the wider studio plan.

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Sources

• IGN: article on the repeated story changes around Spider-Man: Brand New Day
• The Bulwark: interview with Chris McKenna
• Sony Pictures: official film description of Spider-Man: Brand New Day