Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe entry in a year, following last year’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The latter movie had a bunch of major table-setting to do: introducing the alternate universe that houses the titular characters, showcasing the characters themselves on a relatively stand-alone adventure, and maybe setting up their adversary Dr. Victor Von Doom, who has been called in to serve as the main villain for Avengers: Doomsday, the master series’ next big crossover event coming out in December. That last bit was handled entirely in a post-credits (well, mid-credits) scene that introduces Doom (played by Robert Downey Jr., though not that you could tell in the scene) without showing his face. The idea seems to be to imitate the way that Thanos, the big bad guy in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, was first introduced in a mid-credits scene in the first Avengers movie (before actually appearing, albeit briefly, in some subsequent films).
The new Spider-Man movie, by contrast, does not take on such heavy responsibilities with its credits, which mainly… show the names of the people who made the movie. Though Brand New Day features a variety of familiar MCU characters from across films and TV shows, they’re very much in service of the story at hand (or, in the case of one new character, building some anticipation for a future Marvel project that has neither a title, nor a cast, nor a release date). That classic Marvel mid-credits spot, between the end of the splashy end-title sequence and the rest of the credit roll, is empty. There’s no big bonus scene heralding the arrival of the Fantastic Four or the Fox-universe X-Men or Dr. Doom in the main MCU. The end titles showcase refreshingly down-to-earth shots of New York City life, and then move on to the rest of the credits.
However, there is one little tidbit that follows the long scroll of on-set workers, visual effects artists, catering folks, etc. — who deserve a few minutes of your time anyway, so why not stick around, even if what follows isn’t exactly a scene, per se?
If that’s all you need to know, you’re all set: Yes, there is a post-credits scene, albeit in miniature, at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. If you want to know more about what it actually means, read on. Technically, spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day will follow — although, again, this has little to do with anything that happens in the movie itself, so those major plot details will actually remain safe!
What Does the Spider-Man: Brand New Day Post-Credits Scene Mean?
So in Brand New Day, there’s a running gag of sorts that Peter Parker’s former best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), after forgetting Peter entirely as the result of a world-saving spell at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, has built a Spidey-tracking app so that the people of New York City can keep tabs on their friendly neighborhood, well, you know. (It’s meant as an act of fandom, not stalking, though no one really asks Ned whether it’s such a hot idea to transmit a superhero’s real-time location in a way that any supervillain, or even garden-variety villain, could access it.)
Following the credits, a screen-life-style shot of the Spidey Tracker pops on the screen. (No live-action characters are heard or seen.) We see the icon indicating Spider-Man’s presence in Manhattan. Then, the icon starts to drift — and the app’s purview zooms out to indicate that Spider-Man is no longer in Manhattan, then no longer in the U.S., then drifting off-planet entirely. The icon stabilizes somewhere in outer space (or is it?!) before the screen cuts out and the usual MCU message appears: “Spider-Man Will Return.”
Now, other such James Bond-style messages at the end of MCU projects have (sometimes) indicated which specific movie the superhero will return in, while this one remains vague in its promises. This is notable because Tom Holland has not been confirmed as a cast member in Avengers: Doomsday, even though literally dozens of other past actors have been. (He has also claimed not to be in it, though white lies about such things are definitely encouraged by the Disney bosses.) This doesn’t mean he won’t show up; there are probably at least five or six major Marvel figures who the movie will attempt to spring on audiences as delightful surprises, and Holland’s Spidey, as a major favorite, could be one of them. But it’s also possible that he doesn’t turn up until Avengers: Secret Wars, the Doomsday follow-up due in 2027, or that his role in Doomsday is cameo-strength. (Although, with that many characters, won’t almost everyone’s role feel like a cameo?)
Moreover, given that these movies both supposedly deal with alternate universes (like the kind Holland’s Parker has experienced via No Way Home, when Spider-Men and various villains from previous movies turned up in his world), it’s genuinely difficult to tell whether this little icon on a map is meant to show Peter simply back in outer space (a la Infinity War) or somehow beaming in a signal from a parallel universe. After all, some weird space nexus is how Monica Rambeau wound up in the X-Men universe back in the mid-credits scene for The Marvels (though recent reports have implied this may not be followed up on, in the rich recent MCU tradition of throwing 40 balls in the air and seeing what Reddit tells them they should juggle).
Of course, nothing about this not-quite-a-scene at the end of Brand New Day is meant to feel definitive. It’s meant to tease anticipation for the coming Avengers duology, which are the only two MCU movies arriving until 2028. The real spoiler, then, could be what kind of damage this mega-storyline must do to the Spider-Man corner of the universe. Infinity War single-handedly undid the endings of multiple MCU movies that preceded it, including Spider-Man: Homecoming. The series got back on track, rolling with the big Snap/Blip event amusingly in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it still felt like the master plot was undermining the individual films.
Brand New Day is the best Marvel movie in at least a few years, so the idea that its character progressions might be put on pause for the sake of chasing another two-billion-dollar box office high is kind of a bummer. (It’s also kind of goofy considering that Spider-Man on his own is arguably just as popular as the Avengers together at this point.) Then again, Holland’s Peter Parker has proved surprisingly resilient, starring in four movies and appearing in at least three others as a supporting character. So keep watching the Spidey Tracker and maybe he’ll wind up back where he belongs.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.