Spider-Man: Brand New Day Post-Credits Scene Reportedly Shows Tom Holland's Peter Parker Being Taken to Battleworld

Spider-Man: Brand New Day had its world premiere, and the reaction and review embargo lifted early the following morning. By all accounts, this may be one of the best Spider-Man movies ever made. But the film's single post-credits scene has now leaked, and it is worth breaking down exactly what it shows and what it might mean, because some people are calling it disappointing while I think it is actually the opposite.

Consider this a spoiler warning. If you would rather go in without knowing anything about the post-credits scene, now is the time to look away.

Ned's Spidey Tracker Loses Earth Entirely in the Only Post-Credits Scene

There is only one post-credits scene in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it centers on Ned's Spidey tracker. It is shown as a digital screen with a red dot located in New York, and the whole interface has a retro video game look to it. Then the screen starts saying "location unknown" as it pans out of New York, out of the entire Earth, and scrolls into space.

Eventually the red dot shows up mysteriously off Earth, sitting in the middle of space. That is the entire scene. People online have reacted by calling it the worst post-credits scene of all time, with comments saying it doesn't make any sense. I've seen that exact post and comment, and I think those reactions are missing something.

Why This Points to Battleworld From Secret Wars, Not a Mistake

My question for anyone calling this scene nonsensical is whether they have been following what is about to happen in Avengers: Doomsday. Jonathan Hickman wrote the 2015 Secret Wars run eleven years ago, and people have disseminated, explained, broken down, posted, reposted, and made shorts about that storyline ever since. There is no question about what happens at the end of Avengers: Doomsday: all the timelines, the entire multiverse, are about to collapse, and the only thing left will be Battleworld, a planet crafted out of the remnants of certain timelines that survived.

So what I think this post-credits scene is doing is showing, from the tracker screen's point of view, that Doomsday has already happened. Doom has won, the multiverse has collapsed, there is no Earth, there's no 616 anymore. This is showing Spider-Man, Tom Holland's Peter Parker, being taken to Battleworld, which I think sits somewhere in the center of space, maybe in the void at the center of space-time, as literally the only planet that still exists.

That also means this scene is taking place right at the end of Avengers: Doomsday, still lined up chronologically, just showing Spider-Man and whoever else being taken to Battleworld as that ending unfolds. I think it's super exciting rather than disappointing.

I'm Surprised They Skipped the Symbiote for This Scene

What genuinely surprised me is that they did not use this post-credits scene to show the symbiote showing up and bonding with Peter Parker, which is what happened in the original 1984 Secret Wars run and is where the black suit comes from. Tom Holland seemingly implied in an interview during this same press junket that at some point his Peter Parker will run into the black suit or the symbiote.

I had assumed that moment would come now, given the timing of the story, but instead it seems that's something they may be looking to actually set up within Secret Wars itself rather than in this post-credits scene.

This Scene Suggests Tom Holland's Spider-Man Is Skipping Avengers: Doomsday

The bigger implication, if this scene is taking place at the end of Doomsday and shows him heading to Battleworld, is that he is not actually in Avengers: Doomsday. There had been talk of reshoots and additional photography shot this summer, during a window when Tom Holland would have been available because he wasn't shooting two huge movies, Spider-Man and the Odyssey, back to back. Some industry insiders suggested that explained the reshoots, implying he was being added into Doomsday.

I think this post-credits scene says the opposite. Tom Holland talked on this same press junket about having to move filming on Spider-Man around to fit the Odyssey, and logistically it's hard to imagine when he would have found time to shoot on the Doomsday sets. From a pure scheduling standpoint, and because Marvel can't fit every single character into Avengers: Doomsday, some characters simply weren't going to make it. I strongly think that means we will not be getting Tom Holland's Peter Parker, and perhaps not Tobey Maguire either, in the movie's intro, and sadly this won't be part of the Doomsday storyline.

Who Might Join Him on the Way to Battleworld

As for who travels alongside him on this journey to Battleworld, I'd presume the Hulk and maybe some of the new X-Men. I'm not really sure how useful Punisher would be in the final battle of Secret Wars, so I'd guess he's probably not part of that group. That said, I think Secret Wars will try to rival the portal scene from Avengers: Endgame, so I wouldn't be surprised to see any and all heroes, maybe even variants of heroes, simply showing up for that kind of final scene cameo.

At the end of the day, not every character could fit into Avengers: Doomsday, and some characters weren't going to make it in given Tom Holland's schedule between the Odyssey and Brand New Day. That's okay, because it allows Secret Wars to put the shine on new teams and new team-ups. I want Spider-Man, Savage Hulk, and other characters we won't see in Doomsday to shine against the new characters, and speaking of Hulk, I think that's also where we finally get the Wolverine versus Hulk fight that was withheld from us in Deadpool and Wolverine.

Do you find this post-credits scene disappointing, or does the Battleworld reading change how you see it?