Why 'Brand New Day' Cut The Creepiest Version Of Spider-Man In Marvel History - EXCLUSIVE
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) has some genuinely creepy turns with its portrayal of Jean Grey and Peter’s increasing mutations, but things could have gone creepier if the film had taken more cues from the scariest Spider-Man variant. The film teases Peter Parker’s increasing transformation into a Man-Spider equivalent, giving him organic webbing and more enhanced abilities. In other adaptations like Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994), Parker fully transformed into a human/arachnid hybrid.
While that concept was considered (and scrapped) for What If…? (2021), it gets referenced in Brand New Day. Instead, the creepy human/spider connection that the film almost embraced took more cues from a relatively recent multiversal counterpart to Spider-Man known as Spiders-Man. As the writers of Brand New Day explained to JustWatch, there were early ideas to have swarms of spiders crawling around and coming to Peter Parker, something that could have given us the scariest Spider-Man concept in the MCU.
Who Is Spiders-Man? Marvel's Grossest Spider-Man, Explained
Spiders-Man hails from Spider-Geddon, a comics crossover by Christos Gage and Jorge Molina. Spiders-Man is a version of Peter Parker who wasn’t bitten by one radioactive spider but instead swarmed by a horde of them. While Peter functionally died, the swarm absorbed his consciousness.
The sentient spiders became defenders of New York, sharing a hive mind and assuming the form of a man in costume, but reeling from their new state and scattering if needed. This variant of Spider-Man fought alongside the heroes against multiversal threats like the Inheritors and Shathra. However, Spiders-Man’s shakier morality led him to align with an empowered version of Norman Osborn over the other heroes.
Spiders-Man is a worst-case-scenario version of the hero for fans who are frightened by arachnids. While the Man-Spider transformation can be freaky, there’s something implicitly unsettling about seeing a horde of spiders all moving in unison and with a dedicated purpose. It’s only thanks to Peter Parker’s innate goodness that the creature even has some semblance of guilt and responsibility to be a hero, as it could otherwise very easily become a horror movie monster.
Spider-Man Was Almost 'Stalked By The Spiders Of New York' In 'Brand New Day'
Spiders-Man wasn’t necessarily set to appear in Brand New Day; that concept was too freaky even to make a cameo in something like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). However, the creatives toyed with the idea of Peter Parker sharing a psionic hive behind the scenes. During a conversation between JustWatch and the writers of the film, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the pair discussed how the movie had more frightening elements in the early stages of pre-production. “It was there for a while. It was leaning into the horror element. He was actually giving off a spider pheromone, and wherever he went, they were flocking to him. There was a hospital scene with kids where they dropped out of nowhere, and the kids started screaming!”
This could have even come into play as the story went on, giving Peter Parker a layer of control over the spiders and even having them crawl over his body to serve as something of a suit. It’s a sufficiently creepy idea that could have underscored the disconnect from his human side that he feels throughout the film, leaning more heavily into the ways Jean couldn’t quite control him.
Peter’s time in isolation is a major dramatic beat in Brand New Day. During it, his powers advance, and his senses get further enhanced, albeit at the cost of his restraint and even his humanity. While Peter eventually embraces both sides of himself and is able to control himself once again, details like that highlight how easily a few minor tweaks to the story could have made Brand New Day an overt horror film.
