The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently heading toward the end of its Multiversal Saga—a group of TV and movie projects that have explored the endless possibilities, worlds, and slight variations that exist across the multiverse. As such, it's very fitting that there's an alternate reality in which the final cut of Spider-Man: Brand New Day was wildly different than the one we got.
The wall-crawler's latest film has been met with overwhelming levels of success, breaking the record for the biggest domestic opening at the box office. Furthermore, it surpassed the $1 billion mark worldwide in just 6 days, becoming the second-fastest movie to achieve this milestone behind Avengers: Doomsday. Part of the reason the web-slinger has been making cinematic history is that his latest adventure has been praised by fans and critics alike for featuring a deep story about dealing with loneliness as well as epic superhero action unlike anything seen in the hero's saga before.
It's hard to imagine a scenario in which the final cut of Spider-Man: Brand New Day was any different than the one we got, but this was nearly the case.
Tom Holland reveals he hated a cut of Spider-Man: Brand New Day that was the result of feedback gathered in test screenings
During an interview with Quotable, Tom Holland revealed that one of the many cuts of Spider-Man: Brand New Day was made by incorporating the feedback of people who saw the film early. However, not only did this cut miss the mark, but Holland also hated it:
"We've seen loads of different cuts of this movie, and one of the cuts was [that] they took all of the notes from all of the random people that saw the film, and they changed the movie. Then we watched it, and we hated it. It tonally didn't work, and it's what the people were asking for, but it wasn't quite what we wanted as the creatives. But they learned lessons from that experience. So, a movie can change in a thousand different ways in the edit room."
Ultimately, it seems Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the perfect mix of the studio's vision and fan requests. After all, Tom Holland revealed during an interview with LADBible that he scoured the internet to see which types of stories fans wanted to see for Spider-Man 4, with the most popular option being a street-level adventure:
"I have been actively sifting through the internet and trying to best understand what it is that the fans want from a Spider-Man movie, and that’s been my driving force in these pitch meetings. I think the producers, at times, were like, absolutely sick of me, but I think it’s really important because we make these movies for [the fans]."
Sony and Marvel managed to come up with a story that would appeal to a wider range of audiences by listening to fans, but they executed that story in their own way. The result is a film with a more mature street-level narrative filled with iconic twists and turns (such as that shocking V-Max revelation). Besides, it's clear that Tom Holland is starting to have more involvement in the pre-production of the Spider-Man films, which is great since he has talked about his love for the character multiple times in the past.
Perhaps the only divisive aspect of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is its unique post-credits scene, which is clearly meant to set up a bigger storyline... except we don't know what it will be about just yet. Fans have been theorizing about the true meaning of this sequence ever since the film came out, but it seems we won't get answers until the release of Avengers: Doomsday, at the very least. However, it wouldn't be surprising to learn that the payoff to this scene won't come until the release of Avengers: Secret Wars.
Beyond that, it seems audiences really liked what Spider-Man: Brand New Day had to offer, so it's a relief that the studio ultimately went against some feedback from the test screenings.
Add us as a preferred source on Google