Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene: what that final tease really sets up

Well, it finally happened—Spider-Man: Brand New Day is actually out in UK cinemas, and if you thought No Way Home left things in a state, just wait until you see where this one lands. Huge weight of expectation, what with Tom Holland’s last turn as the local friendly web-slinger smashing all sorts of records, so Marvel’s kept everyone guessing this time. The film itself has him bouncing all across the Marvel Universe—not just facing new villains, but running into the Hulk, the Punisher, and there’s even a twist on a classic X-Men character you probably didn’t see coming.

If you’re a post-credit scene devotee, you’ll want to make sure you don’t dash out the minute the credits hit. For once, there’s no mid-credits gag, but the scene at the very end? It’s odd, cryptic, and about as teasing as they come. If the MCU’s building towards both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars as promised, this coda is a properly loaded one.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day only has one post-credit scene—and it’s right at the very end, so stick it out through the lot.

The Post-Credits Scene: What Actually Happens?

Nothing flashy with big cameos—this sequence centres on that Spidey-tracker app Ned whipped up in the film’s earlier acts. The screen shows a digital map of New York City, then a robotic voice announces 'New Spider-Man sighting. Location unknown.' As the map zooms further and further out, it starts repeating the 'location unknown' line until you’re way past the Earth, out into open space. Suddenly the app glitches, and the tracker symbol flickers in the middle of the cosmos. Now it just says 'location found,' before smashing to black. Last thing on screen: 'Spider-Man will Return.'

If you’re wondering if you accidentally walked into the wrong film, you’re not alone. Brand New Day keeps things street-level all the way through, with Spider-Man fighting crime in NYC and reconnecting with Ned by the finale. There’s absolutely nothing to signal he’s off for a jaunt in space—certainly not by the end of the film, where Peter Parker is very much still Earthbound.

Compared to the usual Marvel fare, it’s… a bit tame. And, as you can imagine, people had opinions. Loud ones.

• Daniel Richtman, notorious leaker, says don’t even bother: 'Do NOT stay until after the credits for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It’s not worth it.'
• On the flip side, @MasterTainment (also big in the Marvel scooper world) fires back:

  In his words: 'I highly disagree with this take. Stay.'

• French fans got involved too—@bene_cz75 went off (in French) calling the scene 'totally logical' and exciting, though admitting not everyone understood it.
• Meanwhile, @onestpaslagros just went and spoiled the actual scene: 'The post-credit scene is the SpiderTracker app that shows Spider-Man is in space and that he’s coming back, so there you go, that way you don’t waste your time.'

What’s Going On? Space, Secret Wars, and All the Rest

This leaves us with a puzzle. How did Spidey go from swinging round Manhattan to possibly lost among the stars? The quickest explanation links all the way back to the cryptic space crisis mentioned in the Thunderbolts* post-credits not long ago. That teaser made it sound like some catastrophic event was on the horizon—maybe kicking off Avengers: Doomsday. But there’s another angle: perhaps that 'crisis' has its own separate timeline, with certain heroes—like Spidey, Hulk, even Captain Marvel—missing from Doomsday entirely because they’re off on a cosmic mission, only returning for Secret Wars.

Let’s talk Secret Wars, then. When Marvel confirmed they were actually doing a sixth Avengers film called Secret Wars, everyone assumed it’d be riffing on the 2015 Jonathan Hickman comics—the whole 'Time Runs Out' and Battleworld patchwork reality orchestrated by Doctor Doom. Seems like Doomsday is following that lead-in. But don’t forget, the Russo brothers have always gone on about wanting to adapt the original 1984 Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, where Battleworld is thrown together out in some random galaxy by a cosmic entity called the Beyonder. Seeing the Spidey-tracker ticking away in an otherwise-normal NYC strongly hints the main MCU universe is still ticking along, but Spider-Man himself? He may be stranded on Battleworld or a splintered-off version of reality—maybe both storylines at once if Marvel’s feeling greedy.

And if the tracker’s working but only because users are reporting sightings, it does sound like a little beacon from Peter, wherever he’s landed. Odds are, he’s telling us (or someone inside the MCU) exactly where to look, but there’s no big reveal yet whether he’s due to be rescued from an old-school Battleworld in the farthest reaches or somewhere stitched together from multiversal chaos.

Will We Actually See Spider-Man in Doomsday?

The actual post-credit message is tellingly cagey: 'Spider-Man will return.' Not much to go on; no date, no film title. For comparison, the last three Marvel flicks—Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps—all flat-out said their main heroes would be back for Doomsday. Oddly, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man isn’t currently announced for Doomsday’s cast at all. Some of this comes down to the fact Brand New Day and Doomsday were shooting simultaneously, so the studio couldn’t wedge him into both in a big way. There’s always that slim possibility of a sneaky cameo, but Marvel are keeping their cards close.

Still, this isn't just about what team film he’ll show up in next. There’s a mounting sense Marvel are setting us up for something even bigger for Spidey and his solo outings. If Secret Wars really is the next crossover, and Spider-Man’s already halfway across the universe, the stage is suspiciously well-set for a classic—and by that, I mean Venom.

Venom: The Long Game

Let’s spell it out. In the original 1984 Secret Wars comics, Peter gets the black-suit symbiote while stuck on Battleworld—he finds what he thinks is some alien costume repair kit, only it turns out to be a living cosmic parasite that later bonds with Eddie Brock. That one relatively small event ended up launching Venom as Spidey’s major nemesis (and, on rare occasions, uneasy teammate). Most film versions have fudged this bit: Spider-Man 3 and the Venom movies just kept the alien angle vague, and The Amazing Spider-Man tried swapping science for space. The MCU, however, is now in a position to finally go all-in on a comic-accurate version: Spidey, in space, stumbles onto the black symbiote while duking it out on Battleworld, brings it back to Earth in the aftermath, and from there you have the foundation for a proper Spider-Man vs. Venom film down the line.

No official word yet on a fifth Spider-Man entry, by the way—Marvel and Sony’s agreement looks like it expired after this one, and after the small disaster in 2019 (when it looked like Sony was pulling him out of the MCU altogether), nobody’s risking concrete promises. But, studio politics and backroom deals aside, they’d be mad to miss out on this particular thread after the way Brand New Day leaves it hanging.