2026 is changing one of Avengers: Endgame‘s biggest storylines thanks to Spider-Man: Brand New Day – and it seems like a change that may well resonate positively with viewers. With Avengers: Endgame being one of the most lauded and financially successful movies in history – and thus a game-changing example of what the superhero genre is capable of – it can be a risky move for later releases to retroactively alter details about the movie’s story or its place in the wider MCU mythos.
This has been evidenced by the mixed reactions to the confirmed returns of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers and Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday – even though Evans may well be playing a variant of Rogers, and Robert Downey Jr. is playing a very different character to Iron Man.
As it stands, though, Doomsday is not the only movie set to revamp and recontextualize Avengers: Endgame and its story, with another example of this set to unfold during the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as a result of the way Endgame utilized the Hulk and his story, and the subsequent way Brand New Day changes how this story looks in retrospect.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Drastically Changes What Avengers: Endgame’s Hulk Storyline In Retrospect
Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s newest trailer sets up many exciting plot points for the MCU movie, but only one seems to serve to rewrite what we knew of the franchise’s past. This is namely in terms of the trailer showing us Banner transforming back into the classic Hulk form, rather than becoming Smart Hulk as we’ve seen him become instead ever since Avengers: Endgame, which introduced the concept as one of its major storylines.
Avengers: Endgame put forward that the Smart Hulk form was created because Banner had effectively “cured” his issues with his green berserker counterpart by combining them together – a move he suggested had no downsides, and instead gave him Bruce’s brains and Hulk’s strength in one package because the two could now co-exist in a sense. However, Spider-Man: Brand New Day provides what appears to be the final evidence that this was never the case.
Not only is Banner apprehensive about what his transformation into the Hulk would be like without his Inhibitor – warning Peter Parker about as much – his later actual transformation into this form appears to suggest the Hulk is on the warpath for at least part of the movie as a result of the being having been repressed for so long, since it seems unlikely he’d otherwise go after Spider-Man given the two have fought in at least one battle on the same side.
Changing The Hulk’s Avengers: Endgame Storyline Is For The Best For The Long-Term For The MCU
While Brand New Day‘s Hulk story will retroactively change Avengers: Endgame‘s own – by revealing at least a little about what the Hulk really thought of the Smart Hulk transformation, and thus how much Banner was bending the truth or lying to himself about how the Smart Hulk form worked – this move is one that seems as though it should pay off in the long term for the MCU.
Fans have been calling for the return of the Hulk rather than the Smart Hulk ever since Avengers: Endgame itself, and these calls have only grown more widespread in the years that have passed since the film without the main Hulk reappearing. As such, finally making this dream a reality is a move that is sure to pay off for the franchise, and reignite interest in the Hulk himself going forward.
With the Hulk being one of the MCU’s few surviving original Avengers after Avengers: Endgame – and with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars likely set to make the Hulk more important than ever once again – this story update arguably couldn’t come at a better point, especially since it looks like it will also make Spider-Man: Brand New Day even more interesting at the same time.