Culture writer Lamisa Worthy predicts how Spider-Man: Brand New Day could help the MCU retain its cultural stronghold.
If the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) once felt like required viewing, lately it’s begun to resemble required reading. What was once a carefully interwoven saga has, in the post-Avengers: Endgame era, become something of a narrative disarray.
Much of this “Marvel fatigue” can be traced to the arrival of Disney+, a double-edged sword in all regards. On paper, it offered Marvel Studios the ideal platform through which fans could easily access a unified library of movies, shows, and seasonal specials. In practice, however, it opened the floodgates, allowing them to continuously churn out a stream of new releases, some inspired, others distinctly less so. Consequently, the MCU has begun to feel less like a cohesive narrative and more like an ever-expanding content pipeline.
When beloved shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones (originally developed for Netflix) were folded into official canon, it created an unspoken obligation. To follow the “main” story seemed now to require a binge-watch spanning years of television, sequels, and character arcs. At the same time, Marvel appeared to adopt a quantity-over-quality approach, unveiling a release lineup that was impressive in theory, but realistically impossible for normal audiences to keep up with.
Compounding this is Marvel’s tendency to plant narrative seeds it never quite waters. Post-credits scenes, once a signature innovation that Marvel Studios helped pioneer, would tease future projects. Staying seated through the credits became a badge of dedication, as these moments built anticipation. Now, however, they often feel perfunctory. For instance, Eternals introduced Eros (Harry Styles) in a post-credits tease that promised future significance. Years later, that thread remains conspicuously loose with no hint at being addressed, leaving us with a cinematic universe that raises more questions than it answers.
It is no surprise, then, that even the most loyal fans began to wonder: when did escapism start to feel like exhaustive admin?
And yet, amid this fatigue, Spider-Man continues to cut through the noise. Of all Marvel’s icons, Spider-Man has always been the most human. Not an advanced super-soldier or a hammer-wielding Norse God, but just a teenager facing human issues like rent, relationships, and highs and lows of high school. This grounding in everyday struggles is what makes him so accessible, allowing audiences to see themselves reflected in him.
Whether portrayed by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or Tom Holland, the character has retained an emotional accessibility that the broader MCU sometimes lacks. Holland’s version tethered the superhero directly to the MCU’s core with his debut in Captain America: Civil War. But it was Spider-Man: No Way Home that truly crystallised his cultural staying power. The film wasn’t just fan service; it was fan service done right. With the well-written screenplay that afforded both nostalgia, with cameos from past Spider-Men, their villains, and character development, the film managed to enhance the story’s exploration of loss, responsibility, and identity with greater maturity.
Which brings us to Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Before the press tour has even begun, the film has already made itself comfortable in history. Its trailer, the first ever to cross 1 billion views, was revealed through a global, fan-driven campaign. The marketing itself felt like a statement: less influencer-driven, unlike most movies nowadays, and more community-focused. In other words, quintessentially Spider-Man.
But can Brand New Day cure Marvel fatigue? The answer, frustratingly, is both yes and no.
On one hand, the sheer scale of anticipation nods toward a genuine public excitement we haven’t truly seen since Avengers: Endgame. It also demonstrates Spider-Man’s unifying power, capable of drawing casual viewers and die-hard fans alike. Long before Iron Man signalled the start of the MCU in 2008, Spider-Man was already a household name following his significance in the comics and inter-generational popular culture.
Now with his confirmed role in Avengers: Doomsday, the character could very well act as a narrative anchor for the franchise’s future. Rather than asking audiences to invest in increasingly obscure and peripheral characters, Marvel can utilise Spider-Man’s historical provenance.
But enthusiasm for one film does not necessarily translate into renewed faith in the franchise as a whole. The underlying structural issues persist. For many, the idea of catching up on multiple projects just to understand a handful of references still feels like a chore, and even those crucial to the wider time-line, like Secret Invasion, are met with a hesitation born of fatigue that no amount of web-slinging charisma can fully offset.
Brand New Day may not necessarily “save” Marvel outright, but it has the potential to correct course and rectify some of the damage caused by years of over-saturation. At the very least, it can remind audiences why they cared in the first place.
With great power comes great responsibility. Let’s see if Holland’s Spider-Man is up to the task.
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