Spider-Man has taken the world by storm all over again. Are we surprised? No, because he's Spider-Man. But still, the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day was already shaping up to be massive well ahead of its arrival on the big screen, and that still didn't prepare us for the sheer scale and levels of success that the most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movie would experience. It has been monumental, to say the least.
The film is currently the third-highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide (and on course to being the all-time top grosser in the US markets), and that's just a reflection of how much we all love Tom Holland's Spidey. Peter Parker has been a fixture of the pop-culture landscape for decades but this particular iteration - as part of this particular MCU franchise - has taken the character to even greater heights. And it's absolutely insane to reflect on how it all started a decade - something that the-powers-that-be very recently did.
Kevin Feige reflects on taking risks when recasting Spider-Man with Tom Holland
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Pascal Pictures' Amy Pascal recently sat down with Josh Horowitz to discuss Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The interview opened with Horowitz reflecting on the long journey that brought all involved to the release of the 38th MCU movie, which prompted Feige to look back on the risks that they took when it came to bringing a new version of the webslinger to the MCU itself:
"Recasting [Spider-Man] so soon after Andrew [Garfield] was a bit of a risk. Bringing him in [tp the MCU] through Civil War was our way of trying to mitigate that risk."
Feige is spot on here. While the previous Spidey films - The Amazing Spider-Man movie series - were somewhat divisive, Andrew Garfield's performance was widely praised. So, to move on from that film series so quickly and to recast Spider-Man again for the second time in a four year period was incredibly risky. While The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed slightly for Sony's expectations, $717 million is nothing to be sneezed at. So to move on from it was indeed questionable.
Or it would have been if it hadn't proven to be so darn successful. Yes, it was a risk worth taking, as Tom Holland was cast in the new role as Sony Pictures reached out to Marvel Studios about potentially having Spider-Man join the MCU - something that fans had wanted to see for the longest of times. And in 2016 - just two years after the previous Spider-Man movie had been released - Spidey showed up in support of Team Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War in a moment that will live in cinema history forever.
But the risk-taking didn't stop there. While Captain America: Civil War's $1 billion haul at the box office proved to be the perfect vehicle to introduce the MCU's new webslinger, 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming would be the film that allowed us to get to know him. This Peter was younger than his predecessors, so the story required more installments, and the success of the first one allowed Sony and Marvel to produce two more movies: 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home and 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home - all while Marvel Studios had him play a significant role in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
It was a long and winding road for the young Peter, but Feige acknowledges how the story was necessary to tell - even if it was a risk to take three films to get him to where the typical Peter Parker story may begin:
Taking three movies to tell an elongated version of Spidey's origin that Sam [Raimi] told in the first half of a movie, I think was also a risk."
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man established Tobey Maguire's webslinger as a near-adult superhero by the end of that film, so he was well-established by the time that the second and third ones rolled around. That's pretty much the stage that Tom Holland's Spidey finds himself at now: A struggling adult superhero who everyone loves.
Considering how well Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been received, we'll say that it was a risk that ultimately paid off. Tom Holland is now considered the definitive Spider-Man for this generation and, with Spider-Man 5 inevitable (along with another potential sequel to round out a new trilogy) as well as rumored appearances in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, it's highly likely that Peter's biggest and best days are still ahead of him!
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in theaters.
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