Spider-Man: Brand New Day Trailer Reveals Organic Webbing, Hulk, and a Messi Cameo Nobody Expected

With four weeks until Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters, Sony has dropped a flurry of new footage that answers several questions fans have been asking — and raises at least one nobody thought to ask: what is Lionel Messi doing in the MCU?

The latest TV spot, released July 1, gives the clearest look yet at Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Peter Parker. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi) and written by the returning trio of Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, and Justin Kuritzkes, the film positions itself as a reset after the multiverse-heavy events of No Way Home (IGN, July 1, 2026).

Organic Webbing and a Tobey Maguire Nod

The most talked-about shot in the new footage is a close-up of Holland’s wrists firing organic webbing — a departure from the mechanical web-shooters the MCU Spider-Man has used since Civil War. The image is hard not to read as a direct callback to Tobey Maguire’s version of the character, whose organic webbing was a defining trait of Sam Raimi’s trilogy. The TV spot doesn’t explain the change, but it’s a visual signal that Brand New Day is interested in pulling from Spider-Man’s full screen history, not just the last three films.

The title itself is telling. “Brand New Day” is borrowed from a controversial 2008 Marvel comics storyline that served as a hard reset for the character, undoing his marriage to Mary Jane Watson through a deal with the devil (Mephisto) and restoring Peter Parker to a younger, single status quo. While the film is unlikely to adapt that plot literally — nobody expects Mephisto to show up, though Marvel fans have been wrong about that before — the branding suggests Cretton and the writers are thinking in reset terms: a clean start for Holland’s Spider-Man after the identity-reveal chaos and multiverse cameos of the previous films.

The Hulk, Jean Grey, and a Messi Assist

The same trailer officially confirms Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk in the film — a reveal Sony had been teasing since the latest full trailer dropped. More cryptic is the presence of Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), whose role remains unconfirmed but looks increasingly likely to be an MCU version of Jean Grey. Sink appears in enough frames to fuel speculation without giving away whether she’s friend, foe, or a character Marvel isn’t ready to name yet.

Sony’s marketing strategy for Brand New Day has been noticeably more aggressive than Homecoming or Far From Home. The studio is releasing at least two major trailers and a steady drip of TV spots in the final month, a pattern that suggests confidence in the film but also reflects the unusually crowded July calendar. With Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Illumination’s Minions & Monsters both performing strongly, Sony appears determined to own the conversation heading into release weekend. The Messi spot alone — a World Cup tie-in that makes no narrative sense whatsoever — signals that the campaign is willing to get weird if it keeps the film trending.

Then there’s Messi. A World Cup-themed commercial released June 30 features the Argentine footballer meeting Spider-Man in a scene that IGN Nordic dryly noted “will almost certainly not appear in the final film” (IGN Nordic, June 30, 2026). It’s a marketing stunt — Sony capitalizing on the 2026 World Cup being hosted across North America — but it’s also the kind of absurd cross-promotion you only get when a studio knows it has the summer’s biggest remaining tentpole. The commercial racked up millions of views within 24 hours, suggesting the absurdity was precisely the point.

Villains and Supporting Cast

New character reveals include Tombstone, the albino mob enforcer from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery, and Detective Jean DeWolff, a police ally from the comics whose live-action debut signals a street-level crime story running parallel to whatever multiverse or cosmic threads the film is juggling (IGN India, June 29, 2026).

Jon Bernthal’s Punisher also appears in marketing materials, alongside returning cast members Zendaya and Jacob Batalon. The ensemble suggests Brand New Day is aiming for a scale closer to No Way Home than Homecoming, even as its title — borrowed from a 2008 comics storyline — promises a return to Peter Parker’s grounded New York roots. Whether Cretton can balance a half-dozen supporting characters, two confirmed villains, a possible X-Men introduction, and a street-level crime plot in a single film is the question the trailers are carefully not answering.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day releases in North American theaters July 31. Advance bookings are open now. The film will screen in premium formats including IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and ScreenX. In India, where advance bookings are also live, the film arrives a day early on July 30 and will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada.