With how Spider-Man: No Way Home ended, Peter Parker’s next chapter is just getting started. To preview what’s next, I spoke with Spider-Man: Brand New Day Director Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Tom Holland, Jacob Batalon, and Jon Bernthal about finding something that feels personal within the superhero genre, one thing that will always connect them to their characters, and more.
It’s a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him — and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him — sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves — a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.
“The only reason that I want to do movies in this genre is my hope to find something in the spectacle that feels extremely personal, and not just personal, I’m looking for something that feels healing to me. It’s a little selfish, but I’m working on a movie for sometimes two years. I’m on that journey with my wife, my kids, and with so many other people, my crew, who become my family,” Cretton shared. “Over the course of those two years, I want to know what the beating heart is of the movie that I’m making and I hope that it’s an enriching experience for myself, a subject matter that I can explore. Where Peter Parker left off at the end of the last movie was a place that I can fully relate to, and I think many people can relate to feeling totally isolated, even though they’re surrounded by thousands of people, and that place felt like something that was worthy to spend two years exploring.”
Holland, who stars as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, told me, “It feels like we’re lucky enough to be playing them in this point in time, and I know that there will be people that come to play them in the future. I’ve expressed a real desire to be a part of that process. I really want to bring Miles Morales to the screen, and if I can shepherd that young kid through this process in the way that Robert Downey did for me, [it] would be a really awesome thing”
“I feel more comfortable being Ned, for sure, but I think it’s just the chance and the privilege to be able to do these parts is really cool,” Batalon added. “In the same way that other people are going to come and eventually take these parts, I would hope that they have that same sense of responsibility to just carry the writing and carry the character for themselves.”
Meanwhile, this film marks The Punisher’s big-screen debut with Bernthal, who has portrayed the character in Marvel’s Daredevil and The Punisher series.
“I feel enormously protective of Frank, but zero ownership. I think the great thing about these characters that come from the comics — just the act of reading a comic is these captions and this artwork, and so much of these characters exist in the hearts and the minds of the fans, and that’s really who they belong to,” the actor expressed. “Your interpretation, I think, always has to come with a deep, deep reverence and respect for that process and how much it means to so many people. So, you just don’t want to get it wrong, and you want to honor them always.”
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