‘Avengers Doomsday’ skips Spider-Man — here’s why

The Spider-Man machine keeps rolling, doesn’t it? Despite Marvel’s recent bumpy run, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is pegged for another smash hit — billion dollar territory, no less — and audiences apparently cannot get enough of the webslinger. You’d expect that level of cultural obsession to guarantee him a front-row seat for every major Marvel crossover. But here’s the odd bit: Tom Holland’s participation in the looming Avengers film (the one with the apocalyptic title, yes) remains completely up in the air, official line being silence and unofficial word swirling that he’s out. Marvel isn’t playing coy. If Spidey was in, they’d say so up front (just look at how they loudly parade their Captain Americas and Iron Men in cast announcements). So, why is Spider-Man suspiciously missing from all the Doomsday chatter? Time to talk about Brand New Day’s post-credit scene, because that’s where things get properly strange.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is expected to cross the $1 billion mark at the box office with ease.

The Post-Credit Puzzle

The final bonus bit after the credits is deceptively simple — you don’t see any actual actors, just an app interface. This brings us around to Ned Leeds. In this film, he’s off at MIT and has put his nerdy brain to use by building the “Spidey Tracker,” an app thanking Spider-Man for… well, everything. It’s designed for fans to log hero sightings all over New York. Tidy work, Ned. He describes it in the film like this:

‘I wanted to build a space where all of us web heads can come together to celebrate the hero who does so much for our city,’ Ned says.

What unfolds on screen is the app showing a familiar Spider-Man icon tracking around New York — then, it gets odd. Ned’s own recorded “smart assistant” voice pops up: ‘New Spider-Man sighting… location unknown.’ Suddenly, the app zooms out, way past Manhattan, pulls back to show the whole globe... and then, hilariously enough, just keeps going, spanning off into deepest space. It stops, blankly dropping a pin literally in the middle of nowhere. Voice then says: ‘Location found.’ Bang — cut to black, with ‘Spider-Man Will Return’ parked on screen as the last word. The message is as clear as mud: Spidey is off world — or, apparently, just missing in action until the next chapter. Not even a hint as to which film he’ll pop up in next, and the press tour has made a thing of Tom Holland being swamped with his other big projects (The Odyssey and Brand New Day itself).

What Does This Actually Tease?

There are two main ways you could read this disappearing act. Either Peter Parker has been abruptly whisked away somewhere remote (another planet, or possibly another universe entirely), or there’s a different Spider-Man running around. The fact that he’s gone missing from Earth tracks perfectly with one major Marvel event looming on the horizon: Avengers: Secret Wars, due out on 17 December 2027, is where this all starts to make sense if you squint at the comics.

If Marvel plays it straight with the 1984–85 Secret Wars storyline, here’s what goes down: the omnipotent Beyonder gets fixated on Earth’s heroes and villains, mashes together pieces of different planets (Denver, Colorado gets dragged in for some reason), and flings everyone onto a planet called Battleworld. Everyone is yanked out of their daily lives and forced to duke it out in a cosmic sandbox. “Missing” Spider-Man in space could be the most unsubtle hint possible: he’s been forcibly relocated to Battleworld to await the next cinematic punch-up. That’s one interpretation.

There’s an alternate theory doing the rounds — the out-in-space pin means we might not even be following Tom Holland’s Peter Parker anymore, but a different flavour of Spider-Man altogether. If you listen to the rumour mill, it’s buzzing that a Spider-Man may appear in Avengers: Doomsday, but probably not Holland. Could it be Tobey Maguire booked for a comeback, Andrew Garfield reclaiming the suit, or even one of those alternate-universe Spideys from the animated flicks or spin-offs (Spider-Noir, anyone? Miles Morales if we’re lucky)? There’s enough space for conjecture, especially after that pixelated disappearance act.

• Tom Holland remains the current Spider-Man, but is not confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday
• The latest film’s post-credits set-up suggests Spider-Man is off-world — or someone else is wearing the suit
• Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) invents the Spidey Tracker in the film, which becomes central to the “where is Spider-Man?” question
• Avengers: Secret Wars drops December 2027 and is likely to explain the absence (and eventual return) of Spider-Man