Credit: Marvel Studios/Sony PicturesMarvel Studios and Sony Pictures have quietly confirmed that Peter Parker is no more–but how did we get here?
The Journey to Marvel’s Phase Six and Avengers: Doomsday
Nearly two decades after Iron Man kicked off one of Hollywood’s most ambitious franchise experiments, Marvel Studios is making moves that suggest the MCU as fans have known it is about to look very different. With Phase Five complete and a loaded Phase Six underway, the studio appears to be betting big on a creative reset rather than a slow evolution.
Phase Five limped to the finish line in some respects. Captain America: Brave New World (2025) crossed $400 million globally despite a rocky production and a cloud of off-screen controversy that made profitability an uphill battle. Thunderbolts* (2025) closed out the phase, and while the ensemble film flew under the radar for months, it received positive reviews, though it underperformed at the box office.
Still, the broader Phase Five picture has been uneven. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) delivered one of the MCU’s biggest-ever box office hauls on the strength of Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’ combined star power, while 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels duo posted some of the franchise’s weakest returns in years.
Phase Four wasn’t without its own complications either. Launching into a pandemic-disrupted world, the phase produced a genuine phenomenon in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which grossed $1.953 billion worldwide, and introduced Disney+ as a storytelling platform with series like WandaVision. But the sheer volume of content left a portion of the fanbase craving the more streamlined storytelling that had propelled the Infinity Saga to its peak with Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
Phase Six, though, is a different story. It opened with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, arriving in July 2025 under the direction of Matt Shakman, who helmed WandaVision. Pedro Pascal stars as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing, and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch. The film planted a significant flag for the MCU’s next era and featured an uncredited post-credits appearance from Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.
Downey Jr.’s return was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024, arriving alongside the announcement that directors Anthony and Joe Russo were coming back to the franchise they helped define with Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame. Their next project, Avengers: Doomsday, arrives in December 2026, and the brothers have been candid about what drew them back.
“What’s compelling about these two new Avengers movies is they’re a beginning. It’s a new beginning,” the Russo brothers told Omelete. “So we told an ending story, now we’re going to tell a beginning story, and then who knows where we’ll go from there. Maybe there’ll be another five years, but I think we just needed that time and perspective to figure out where it needed to go next, and the only thing that brought us back was the right story.”
That framing is significant. Unlike Endgame, which served as a culmination of more than a decade of storytelling, Avengers: Doomsday and its follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars (2027), are apparently designed as launchpads rather than conclusions. Marvel is using Phases Six and Seven not to wrap things up, but to tear things down and rebuild.
The Doomsday cast, revealed during a marathon live-stream event last month, reflects just how sweeping that ambition is. In addition to Downey Jr., the film will feature Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy/Beast, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, James Marsden as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Channing Tatum as Gambit.
Danny Ramirez also returns as the new Falcon, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Letitia Wright as Shuri/Black Panther, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America, Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, and the entire Fantastic Four lineup. The Thunderbolts* crew, including Sebastian Stan, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, and Lewis Pullman, rounds out a roster that is easily the most expansive in MCU history.
There is, however, one notable absence. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is not expected to appear in Doomsday, which will mark the first time since Holland took on the role that Spider-Man has sat out an Avengers-level event. The reason, according to insider Jeff Sneider, is logistical and narrative: “Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day will take place at the same time on the MCU timeline as Avengers: Doomsday.”
This marks the first time in MCU history that events in two movies have occurred concurrently. Holland is also currently deep into production on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026), a scheduling factor that The Direct noted “could also keep multiple other MCU stars out of Doomsday.”
What Is Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Holland himself addressed CinemaCon 2025 attendees via a video message, saying, per Variety: “I am so sorry I can’t be with you. I am halfway around the world shooting a movie. I know we left you with a massive clip hanger at the end of No Way Home, so Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a fresh start. It is exactly that. That’s all I can say.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), picks up with Peter Parker in a world where no one remembers who he is, following the events of No Way Home. It is a premise that tracks with how trilogy director Jon Watts long described the arc as an extended origin story, and it sets Holland’s Spider-Man on a solo trajectory before presumably rejoining the larger ensemble for Avengers: Secret Wars in December 2027.
By the time Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters this July, the Marvel and Sony partnership will have pushed Peter Parker into completely uncharted territory. The official premise makes it clear: Peter Parker is no more. Found as part of the retail listing for the official movie art book, the synopsis for Brand New Day has become clearer (via Barnes & Noble).
“Four years have gone by since we last caught up with our friendly neighborhood hero. Peter Parker is no more, but Spider-Man is at the top of his game, keeping New York City safe,” the synopsis reads. “Things are going well for our anonymous hero until an unusual trail of crimes pulls him into a web of mystery larger than he’s ever faced before.”
“In order to take on what’s ahead, Spider-Man not only needs to be at the top of his physical and mental game, but he must also be prepared to face the repercussions of his past!” the overview concludes.
This notion of Peter Parker being “no more” traces directly back to the devastating finale of Spider-Man: No Way Home. In that 2021 blockbuster, Tom Holland’s Peter accidentally tore open the Multiverse, bringing Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parkers and multiple villains from past Spider-Man franchises into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To fix the damage and send everyone home, Peter made the ultimate sacrifice–asking Doctor Strange to cast a spell that would make the world forget he ever existed.
Not just Spider-Man. Peter Parker.
By the film’s closing moments, MJ (Zendaya) didn’t know him. Ned (Jacob Batalon) didn’t remember years of friendship. Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) had no idea who he was talking to. Peter was left alone in a small apartment, sewing a new suit from scratch, choosing not to reintroduce himself to the people he loved in order to keep them safe.
Brand New Day picks up four years after that choice. According to the newly released synopsis, Peter has fully embraced life in the shadows. He’s still protecting New York, still swinging between skyscrapers, but the boy behind the mask has effectively vanished from the world’s memory. There are no Avengers connections, no Stark tech safety nets, and no personal support system waiting at home.
For Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures, this marks a fascinating shift in the Spider-Man franchise. The “Home” trilogy–Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and No Way Home–followed Peter’s journey from eager teenager mentored by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to a hero forced to stand on his own. Now, that independence has gone even further. This isn’t a Spider-Man balancing school dances and superheroics.
The synopsis teases that what begins as a seemingly routine set of crimes will spiral into something far bigger, pulling Spider-Man into a mystery that challenges him in unexpected ways. But the emotional hook is already clear: this is a story about a hero who sacrificed his own existence for the greater good.
Peter Parker may be no more in the eyes of the world, but Spider-Man remains. And as Marvel and Sony continue shaping the future of their shared universe, Brand New Day looks set to explore what happens when a legacy hero has to rebuild everything from the ground up, starting with himself.
Who Is Cast in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
The cast of Spider-Man: Brand New Day reunites a mix of familiar faces from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and some exciting additions. Tom Holland, of course, returns as Peter Parker, now operating as Spider-Man in a world where his civilian identity has been forgotten, with Zendaya back as Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson and Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds.
The film also features Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, better known as the Punisher, and Mark Ruffalo reprising his role as Bruce Banner, the Hulk. Villainous elements are brought in with Michael Mando as Mac Gargan, also known as Scorpion, and Marvin Jones III playing crime boss Tombstone, alongside Tramell Tillman and Liza Colón-Zayas in roles yet to be fully revealed. Stranger Things breakout star Sadie Sink is part of the ensemble in a significant but still mysterious role, and there’s a strong expectation that Charlie Cox will also appear as Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil.
Notably, due to measures beyond Marvel’s control, one iconic character will not be appearing in the movie.
The shape of what Marvel is building here is coming into focus. Rather than simply introducing new characters to prop up an aging structure, the studio appears to be dismantling the old framework and constructing something new from the ground up, with Phase Six as the foundation.
How do you feel about this synopsis for Spider-Man: Brand New Day? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!