Spider-Man: Brand New Day was so good Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal stood up and cheered

While San Diego Comic-Con is arguably one of Marvel Studios' wildest times of the year, these creatives will have little time to slow down with Spider-Man: Brand New Day swinging its way into theaters on July 31st. The fourth Sony feature inTom Holland’s Spidey saga is the darkest chapter yet, following the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it’s introducing a very mysterious new character on top of addressing the fallout of Peter Parker’s painful sacrifice. To discuss the MCU’s present and future, producer and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Pascal Pictures producer Amy Pascalchat with Collider’s Steven Weintraub while doing press ahead of SDCC.

In the movie, Peter struggles to come to terms with MJ (Zendaya), Ned (Jacob Batalon), and everyone he’s ever known and loved, completely forgetting his existence. He’s still Spider-Man, and he still has crime-fighting to do, but the devastation has triggered an unpredictable mutation in his transformation, and this major setback couldn’t have come at a worse time. A very powerful threat to the city puts everyone, including his loved ones, in danger, and this villain appears to be completely invisible. Brand New Day introduces Stranger Things star Sadie Sinkto the MCU and also features Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/Punisher and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk.

Before Brand New Day hits theaters, check out this conversation with Feige and Pascal, where the two discuss Sony and Marvel’s 10-year relationship after first coming together for Spider-Man: Homecoming. They discuss how director Destin Daniel Cretton managed to do something with Brand New Day that’s never been done before, and how he pays very specific homage to the Spider-Man comics throughout the movie. They also talk about why they chose to bring the Punisher and the Hulk in, their reaction to fan theories, and why Sink’s role is so confidential. Plus, Feige and Pascal comment on returning to Hall H at Comic-Con later this week, when Black Panther 3 will begin filming, and pinpoint where Brand New Day falls on the MCU timeline.

Kevin Feige Teases a Big Hall H Panel at This Year's San Diego Comic-Con

Could 'Black Panther 3' or the 'X-Men' reboot make an appearance?

COLLIDER: Kevin, you have a huge Comic-Con panel next week. What do you want to tease fans about that panel?

KEVIN FEIGE: Listen, you probably know as good a tease as I do in terms of the fact that when we go to Hall H, it's for a reason, and it's to have some surprises and show a few things. It's our home away from home, Hall H, so I'm very excited to be heading back.

Black Panther 3, what's the development on that? Do you think it could be filming next year?

FEIGE: Maybe. Maybe.

When do you think we're going to hear about casting on Jake [Schreier]’s X-Men movie?

FEIGE: Maybe. Maybe.

[Laughs] Got it.

Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal "Cheered" After Watching the Director's Cut of 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'

"That's how good Destin [Daniel Cretton] is."

When does Brand New Day take place in relation to Avengers: Doomsday?

FEIGE: It takes place before.

Is it right before?

FEIGE: No, it's before.

AMY PASCAL: Four years after No Way Home.

Jumping into the footage, I saw about 30 minutes of the movie, and it's fantastic. When you guys saw the finished film, how did it compare to what you thought it was going to be when you started making it?

PASCAL: Actually, it was the first time that Kevin and I stood up after a director's cut and cheered. That's how good it was. That's how good Destin [Daniel Cretton] is.

I love that there are shots of Spider-Man swinging through the city that we've never seen before.

PASCAL: That was the intention with this movie, was to go back to seeing Spider-Man be a part of New York City in a way that we've held back on in the previous three Tom Holland movies.

FEIGE: And Destin did a very good job, as you can tell, of pulling from the comics, pulling from very specific comic covers, as you saw, and even the PlayStation game. That has added to the visual language of Spider-Man in such an amazing way.

What fan theory has amused you the most?

FEIGE: I'm intrigued by the fan theories. I'm not amused by them. I'm always intrigued by them. I'm intrigued when they're right, I'm intrigued when they're wrong, and I'm intrigued when they're interesting, which is almost always.

Sadie [Sink]'s character is still under wraps, and I think a lot of people are wondering what it is about her character that needs to be so secretive that nobody knows, and probably no one will know until everyone sees the movie.

PASCAL: We've done something different this time than we've done before, and we're pleased with how it came out. The thing about her character, which is true of all the characters in the movie, is that they're all helping to tell Peter’s story. That's always how we decide who is going to be the characters in these movies, is what characters are going to tell the stories that we want to tell about Peter?

FEIGE: That’s exactly right. What's intriguing about it is how the story is told, and how Destin and our writers told the story. “Secrets and spoilers!” It's really just whenever we try to hold back on anything, it's purely for the best opening weekend experience for the audience.

What Does Tom Holland's Future as Spider-Man Look Like?

Holland has been playing the character for 10 years.

Tom Holland has been playing the character for about 10 years, and it is possible that in the near future he might say, “I'm good. I've done it. It's time for someone else.” How much, when you were making this movie, were you thinking about it as the beginning of another trilogy, and how much are you playing it where each movie has to be its own thing, just in case Tom is like, “Hey, I'm good?”

PASCAL: I think each movie has to be its own thing, no matter what. From the very beginning, Kevin and I have been working together on these movies, we realized this morning, for 27 years, and every time we set out to tell another saga in Peter Parker's life, it has to be able to stand on its own completely. Having said that, we hope Tom's going to be our Spider-Man forever.

I speak for all fans when I say: Yes, please. Let's make that happen. He's fantastic.

PASCAL: He's so fantastic. And for Kevin and I, we are the proud parents of those three, because we met them when they were children at this point.

FEIGE: Meaning Tom and Zendaya and Jacob [Batalon].

What has changed the most about the Sony-Marvel relationship from when you guys first started working together?

FEIGE: I mean, almost nothing is the good news, right? It's the same. It's Tom Rothman. It's the same team. We're just very thankful that we've been able to do it and that it's been 10 years.

PASCAL: It's 10 years. I would say that it's an astonishing relationship that two studios came together because it was the right thing to do for the character, and it's been great. It's really, really a creative, rewarding relationship.

I don't think people realize how rare it is for two studios to do what you guys are doing. It's basically unheard of.

PASCAL: I think it's basically unheard of. But it was the right thing to do for Peter Parker, and that's why it happened, and that's why it works still.

Kevin Feige Compares Tom Holland's First Three Spider-Man Movies to Sam Raimi's Trilogy

Feige and Pascal also explain why The Punisher and The Hulk make an appearance in 'Brand New Day.'

The opening 30 minutes really feel like a different chapter in Spider-Man's life. You can see what he's going through emotionally. How much were you, when you were designing the film, figuring out balancing the emotional turmoil that Peter is going through with the fun, quippy nature of Spider-Man, like balancing the tone?

FEIGE: Well, you talk about fan theories; this wasn't a theory, but I read a comment at one point online that stuck with me that was always the intention, but somebody spelled it out, which is our first three Tom Holland Spider-Man movies were the first act of Sam Raimi's Spidey movie. That obviously was the intention when we were going to do it, and what initial conversations Amy and I had were about slowing it down and following, year by year, through high school, and then leading to the point that you see at the end of No Way Home, where he's very classically Spidey by himself, alone in his apartment listening to a police scanner, going out and being Spider-Man.

And as you say, that's where we pick up, four years later, in this one. That's what the genius of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko was, was that balance between the quippy superheroics and being lonely and trying to balance his life, and in this movie, he very much is not balancing.

Obviously, you have Hulk, and you have Punisher in this film. Can you guys talk about the debate behind the scenes when you're putting the movie together in terms of what characters you wanted to bring in and what it was about Punisher and Hulk that were the best for this version of the story that you’re telling?

PASCAL: The way that we pick the characters in these movies is — I'm going to sound like a broken record — what are the characters that are going to tell Peter's story, and what are the characters that are having the same problems in their life that Peter is having in his? And those two characters also are isolated, and they want to do the right thing in the world, and they have a pretty big Achilles heel. Those are the characters that help us tell the story about Peter.

FEIGE: Amy said it. They worked thematically with Peter very well. Punisher was created as a Spidey comic, and we always wanted to see them together, and Bernthal and Tom Holland have a great history and friendship. And seeing Hulk and Spidey together on screen for the first time, they're in that end battle in Endgame together, but I'm not sure they even share a frame — certainly, not a close-up — so that was always very exciting.

PASCAL: There are really classic moments between Spider-Man and Hulk and Spider-Man and Punisher in this movie.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31.