9 Biggest Unanswered Questions After Watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Contains spoilers for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day"

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is Peter Parker's (Tom Holland) fourth solo installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it functions as something of a reset for the character. Previously, Spider-Man was basically an Iron Man Jr. in this universe, with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) providing him with all sorts of advanced tech. But after the ending of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," nobody remembers Peter Parker, including his best friends. 

Set several years after the last film, "Brand New Day" sees Peter entirely on his own. There's no Stark tech at his disposal, and he's forced to watch his friends party in college over social media while he eats Little Caesar's in a dingy apartment. That right there is the first confusing thing about "Brand New Day": If Peter Parker is a New York native and New York City is famous for its outstanding pizzerias, why is he eating Little Caesar's of all things?

It's the first of many unanswered questions raised by "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." Sure, you could probably come up with explanations for most of these, but the film really tries to gloss over some of the more confounding moments. 

As mentioned previously, the world forgot who Peter Parker was in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." He's completely on his own with no friends, no Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), and no one at Stark Industries who can help him out. With all that in mind, it's a bit baffling that Peter seemingly still has an endless supply of money at his disposal.

Seriously, does Peter have a job in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day"? We see him move into an apartment that's filled with asbestos and other junk, so he probably has cheap rent. But it's rent all the same. How does he afford this place, plus food, plus all of the supplies he needs to maintain his Spidey-suit and all his other gadgets? He has a 3D printer by his desk that's seemingly working non-stop, and those things don't run cheap. Later in the film, Peter designs an inhibitor chip similar to Bruce Banner's (Mark Ruffalo) to suppress his newfound spider powers. How did he make that? How does he get supplies?

One of the most heartbreaking moments from "No Way Home" is Aunt May's sacrifice, so it's possible she left Peter a sizable inheritance even though we're not sure how Peter could collect any money after the world forgets about him. Maybe Tony Stark also left Peter a bunch of money in his will, but nothing's ever been confirmed. 

To be fair, Peter Parker has always been portrayed as poor/working class but still able to fix his suit and build gadgets with ease. "Brand New Day" adds an extra layer of confusion with the fact there's no record of Peter Parker in this new status quo, so how can he get anything done when he's a literal nobody?

There's a throwaway line in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" that contains some major implications which get completely tossed aside. After Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) infiltrates one of Damage Control's buildings, she's able to abscond with Scorpion (Michael Mando). Spidey and his NYPD liaison Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) figure that Scorpion will factor into the next phase of her plan, so Peter informs Jean that he'll hack into all security cameras around New York to search for Scorpion's face. That way they'll know immediately when he surfaces, and they can get the jump on him immediately.

This recycles a plot point from "The Dark Knight," where Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) hacks into every phone in Gotham to find the Joker (Heath Ledger). Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) doesn't mince words, telling Bruce that his actions are unethical and wrong. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" treats this development far more casually. Jean tells Peter that hacking into security cameras is illegal, but she doesn't do anything about it. And Peter doesn't have any moral quandaries over invading privacy for the sake of capturing one villain.

The thing is, Jean and the audience know that Spider-Man is a good guy. We know he's not going to abuse this power and infringe on New Yorkers' civil liberties. But it's still a massive invasion of privacy that no one seems all that concerned about. After all, if Peter can hack into every camera, what's stopping someone more nefarious from doing the same thing? Those cameras require far better security, and we're just wondering why Jean doesn't seem more worried about the possibility of Spider-Man going rogue down the line.

Forget super-powered villains, one of the greatest antagonistic forces in the MCU is a government agency. The Department of Damage Control has done a lot of shady things over the years, like surging agents into a high school in an attempt to bring Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) into custody. In "Wonder Man," it's revealed that Damage Control has prisoner quotas to justify its exorbitant budget. And the department is indirectly responsible for creating the villain Vulture (Michael Keaton) after they supersede his contract to clean up the mess following the Battle of New York, sending him down a path of villainy.

At best, Damage Control is ineffective at curtailing super-powered threats. At worst, they make situations more difficult, so you have to wonder how the government is still allowing them to operate without much oversight. Even if you're willing to overlook that because, let's face it, governments do shady things all the time, there's still the matter of why Peter Parker would willingly work for them. 

After all, Damage Control tried to arrest Peter after his secret identity was revealed to the world. Surely, their other exploits, like targeting a high schooler who wasn't hurting anyone, would be public knowledge. Peter may want to protect Damage Control from Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) because it's the right thing to do, but it's odd that he gets chummy with director Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman). At the very least, one would assume he'd be suspicious of Damage Control's motives long before he realizes Metzger is lying to him about being under Jean's mind control. 

It doesn't take long for Jean Grey to figure out Spider-Man's secret identity and learn his connection to MJ (Zendaya), even if the latter doesn't remember him. Jean's MCU powers, at least at first, involve the ability to telepathically control people, and she can avoid detection by leaping to different people in quick succession. Jean and Spider-Man race to reach MJ first, and after Jean commandeers a helicopter, Spider-Man's able to web it up high in the sky. He determines that Jean can only telepathically hop 33 feet from one person to the next, so she can't get anywhere if she's suspended above the city.

Peter gets to MJ first and assumes everything will be all right, even momentarily thinking that she remembers who he is after seeing his face. But then he realizes that Jean has been in MJ's head all along, after somehow getting to MJ first and pretending to be her. Yet how precisely did she get to MJ's apartment first, when Spider-Man should have had a sizable head-start?

Later, Peter sees Jean getting driven around by someone under her mind control, so it's clear she's not just tucked away in a cave somewhere. Perhaps after Peter webs up the helicopter, she gets driven closer to MJ's apartment, where she can hop from person to person and reach her first. Still, Peter makes such a big deal out of the 33-feet rule that it feels like a bit of a cop-out to just say that Jean somehow beat him to MJ. 

After experiencing mutations that provide him with organic web shooters, Peter pays a visit to Bruce Banner's college classroom to learn more about these budding powers and how to control them. Bruce is giving a lecture, but one student asks him why Thanos (Josh Brolin) didn't just double resources if he was worried about overpopulation rather than simply wiping out half of all life. 

Bruce doesn't have an answer to that, and he just lets another student, painted green, yell out, "Hulk smash!" Of course, the idea that Thanos should have created more food and supplies for the universe is one that fans have discussed at great length online. Plenty of intriguing fan theories regarding Thanos' snap have been created, and some folks theorize that Thanos secretly helped the universe by dusting half the population. 

The theory states that Thanos' world was destroyed by Galactus, after its life force became sizable enough to make for an enticing meal. By wiping out half of all life, Thanos simultaneously ensures there are enough resources to go around while making sure other worlds remain unappetizing to Galactus by reducing their life force. Of course, that's just a theory, and we can't say for sure why Thanos didn't increase the amount of food to go around. The easy answer is that he's a villain who has to do villainous things. But this is literally an unanswered question, since Bruce can't answer it.

Any good villain needs some muscle, and Jean Grey psychically controls Bruce Banner when demolishing the Department of Damage Control headquarters. He may be Smart Hulk at first, but he's still almost too powerful for Spider-Man to take on. Once Bruce's inhibitor is broken, he loses complete control and morphs into Savage Hulk. Even though he's not under Jean's control any longer, he's a pure rage machine, unleashing a beating onto Spider-Man and Punisher (Jon Bernthal).

Peter finally gets the upper hand after tying a bunch of loose debris from the building onto Hulk's legs, which threatens to send him careening to the ground many stories below. Hulk tries desperately to stay inside the building, but something strange happens. Peter reveals to Hulk that he was the "student" getting information from Bruce back at the college. Something clicks inside Hulk, where it seems as though Banner's consciousness is able to break through and recognize that Peter has good intentions, so Hulk willingly lets go of the building and crashes into the street below. 

It's a nice moment, but how is Peter, of all people, able to break through to the Hulk? In the past it took a significant connection to do that, as when Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Bruce forge a bond in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" that allows her to soothe the soul of the savage beast. Bruce barely knows Peter, so how could he get the Hulk to calm down? It's all a bit too tidy, especially since Savage Hulk had been buried deep within Bruce due to the inhibitor. If anything, an even more dangerous version of Hulk should have risen to the surface. 

The ending of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" sees Peter running into Ned (Jacob Batalon) at a bodega. The two previously hung out at Ned's apartment, but that was while Peter was wearing Spider-Man's mask. Peter approaches Ned and introduces himself, and he leans in to do the duo's signature handshake. The amazing part is that Ned knows exactly what to do for the handshake, and it ends with Ned looking up at Peter and remembering his name and seemingly who he was. 

It's a moment of hope because it shows that Peter can unlock old memories inside his friends in spite of Doctor Strange's spell. But that directly goes against what was established previously. When Jean Grey was in control of MJ's mind, she mentions how she looked all through her memories, and there was zero trace of Peter. MJ later confirms this when she's free of Jean's mind control. At Frank Castle's boat, she discovers the note that Peter wanted to give her all those years ago to try to make her recall him. Even with that, MJ confirms that she can't remember Peter at all. 

So what does Peter have to do to make MJ remember him? A handshake is enough to make Ned break out of a powerful spell. Surely, MJ could remember Peter, too, but from everything we've learned up until that point, there's nothing left of Peter in her mind. There might be something Peter can do to reunite with MJ, but we'll have until "Spider-Man 5" to see what that could be.

The post-credits scene for "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" may not seem like much, but it might inadvertently spoil the ending of "Avengers: Doomsday." To be fair, comic book readers should already know exactly how "Doomsday" will end in order to set up "Avengers: Secret Wars." But for non-comic book readers, that scene may have been a tad confusing. 

Ned's Spidey Tracker app, which allows him to keep tabs on every Spider-Man appearance throughout New York, appears onscreen. But this time it follows Spider-Man's whereabouts clear out of New York and into outer space. The text "Spider-Man Will Return" then appears on the screen — but it doesn't mention which movie he'll show up in.

The first "Avengers: Doomsday" trailer reveals that multiple realities are at risk from incursions, with the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) probably looking for ways to save the multiverse. Set to arrive a year after "Doomsday," "Avengers: Secret Wars" will — if it follows the 2015 comic arc on which it's based — dump a bunch of superheroes and villains on Battleworld, a planet created by Doctor Doom from different realities all mashed together. 

Assuming the next two Avengers movies follow a similar path, a bunch of characters will wind up on Battleworld for "Secret Wars." That could easily include Spider-Man, so even if he doesn't make a surprise appearance in "Doomsday," it's not likely that Marvel will leave him out of "Secret Wars."

The MCU has gradually introduced the idea of mutants in the main timeline, bringing in alternate versions of X-Men characters like Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in "Deadpool and Wolverine." Even Kamala Khan's origin was changed in the MCU so that she's technically a mutant. However, with Sadie Sink's Jean Grey, the X-Men are closer than ever to entering the MCU properly. But where's everyone else?

The most likely explanation is that other mutants are simply in hiding. A new version of Charles Xavier could already exist in the MCU, along with his school for special individuals. Still, it's a bit odd that no other mutants have made their presence known. Jean Grey freezing a large portion of New Yorkers with her telepathic abilities is sure to attract some attention, and we wonder if there are similar reports of, say, a young boy destroying his school with lasers coming out of his eyes. 

It's pretty much confirmed that "Avengers: Secret Wars" will act as a soft reboot of the MCU. There's a chance the MCU's reality will undergo some changes and introduce new characters who weren't established previously. This reset could also introduce mutants who weren't there before, giving Jean Grey some new friends to hang out with once a new X-Men movie gets off the ground.