Folks who have been watching the Marvel movies in order know what a giant franchise it is. There are constantly new projects being released in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription, and boss/producer Kevin Feige is the man behind it all. But how much does he actually interfere with individual projects? Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s director recently weighed in.
After directing Shang-Chi, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton worked on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has beat Endgame’s box office haul. In an interview with Fresh Air, Cretton got real about how Feige helps to work on the cinematic universe, saying:
Kevin’s not necessarily ever pushing things on us. We have to once we know what we want we have to go to him and ask like, ‘Is that going to work? Can we use this character in our movie?’
This makes a ton of sense. It sounds like, while Feige allows directors to take the reigns with upcoming Marvel movies, he’s there to help make the shared universe stays connected in logical and exciting ways. That includes examining new twists, and deciding how/when beloved characters should cross over with each other.
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When the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer came out, fan were hyped about the inclusion of both Jon Bernthal‘s Punisher and Mark Ruffalo‘s Hulk. In the same interview, Cretton spoke more about how the latter came to be involved in the blockbuster, offering:
I mean, the same with Hulk, too. We didn’t, we had to ask Kevin if it made sense to our movie to have the Hulk. It wasn’t a mandate to put him in. We had to request [it], and Kevin let us do it.
Don’t you love learning how the sausage gets made? It turns out that Hulk being in Brand New Day was the filmmakers’ idea, although they had to get approval from the higher ups. Luckily that’s exactly what happened, and the latest Spider-Man movie feels like its straight out of the comics as a result.
Moviegoers really responded to Destin Daniel Cretton’s sophomore outing in the MCU, and the crossovers helped to buoy excitement ahead of its release. In addition to Hulk and Punisher, the movie also introduced Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey, who will have a role in the developing X-Men movie. So while Brand New Day told an emotional story about Peter Paker’s loneliness and declining mental health, it also featured colorful characters from Marvel lore. It really had something for everyone, which is likely why the title’s been such a huge success.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is still in theaters now as part of the 2026 movie release list. The next Marvel movie hitting theaters is Avengers: Doomsday on December 18th, and there are plenty of fans hoping that Spider-Man will be included… especially after that Brand New Day credits scene.