Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Biggest Unanswered Questions, From Bill Metzger's Fate To Where Peter Parker Ends Up

Bill Metzger escapes during the chaos on Roosevelt Island, and the movie never tells us exactly what happens to him next. In the comics, though, he goes on to form the anti-mutant militia after the Middletown incident, in which a teenage mutant destroys a town in Missouri. Bill then makes several TV and radio appearances pushing anti-mutant hysteria.

I do wonder if whatever emanated from Jean gets framed in a similar light to how things went down in Middletown. That could hand him a platform to push the anti-mutant agenda and come forward with a cure. Mutants are becoming more prevalent in the MCU with Ms. Marvel confirmed to be one, so he could use the fear around them to build himself back up. In the comics the militia even gets federal support, and he could end up being one of the first foes the mutants face off against.

Where Jean is heading, and whether her trauma pushes her toward the Dark Phoenix

We end the movie with Jean leaving on a bus, and we don't really know where or to whom this is headed. I think everyone is imagining, and probably guessing correctly, that she'll be found by Professor X. Jean was one of the original five founding members of the X-Men alongside Cyclops, Beast, Iceman and Angel, originally known as Marvel Girl and the team's only female member. In some versions of her backstory her powers are brought on by the death of her sister, and she's then taken under Professor X's wing.

I think they're probably going to do something like that, and as of making this, an actress has just been announced to play Emma Frost, so I can't imagine they'll be rolling out the rest of the X-Men cast very soon. There's been a lot of actors attached recently, and I think we'll get more official announcements now that the secret around Sadie Sink is out there. Her running with Mephisto could set up a fearsome rivalry, and we may even get things in place where he helps create the Sentinels.

Ryan Reynolds has theorized that Stark's Iron Fleet from Age of Ultron could be altered into a robotic army, and I think that would be a smart way to take things, since we learned in Homecoming that Damage Control was created by Stark and would plausibly have access to his tech. The dark origins we see here for Jean could usher in her path toward becoming the Dark Phoenix, pushed on by the trauma she feels attached to Bill. Emma Frost is also a powerful psychic who has hooked up with Cyclops too, so maybe there's a love triangle there, and she might help Jean develop her powers. Who knows. I do feel Jean's bus takes her upstate, which is where Xavier's school is located, and she could meet a community of mutants and become our eyes and ears into the X-Men of the 616. I also think Bill is the perfect antagonist here since he's already killed a mutant kid, which makes him the perfect bad guy for the mutants in their very first outing.

Why Jean didn't get stuck in the helicopter, and what happened to the guy dangling from it

In the movie we learn Jean can only jump into someone within a range of 33 feet, and because of that I've seen people ask why she didn't get stuck in the helicopter. The thing is, she wasn't. Jean could disconnect from that guy and then jump to someone else, making her way across to MJ through a different string of people. Peter stringing that guy up only stopped her jumping to anyone in that specific moment, it didn't really slow her down overall.

As for what happened to the guy left in the helicopter, I honestly don't know. He was probably left in there forever, because I would not be putting my life on the line trying to get him out of a helicopter dangling off a crane. Rest in peace, bozo.

What Peter Parker's job actually is now

This is something we don't know for definite, but we can get a pretty good idea from some of the deleted scenes. Peter wears a Del Mar's Deli shirt in the film, which is a store he went to in the Home trilogy, and set photos were actually taken of him around that location, so it's thought he may have a part time job there.

Then again, maybe Tony left him money in the will, or he's got savings, or Aunt May's life insurance is covering things. I don't know, but he could have money stored away somewhere paying for everything. Does it matter if we see him go to work or not? I don't know, maybe, yeah. What I do love is how much he stays in the suit for the entire movie, barely taking it off, to the point that even a bath with Yelena Belova is something he wears the mask for.

Whether Peter's identity is really still secret after so many people saw his face

By the end of the movie a lot of people have seen his face, and a lot of Damage Control's forces know who he is. He gets taken into a hospital in the Spider-Man costume and isn't wearing it when he wakes up, so I've seen people asking if the secret is out there.

We know from the film that when Jean possesses people they end up blacking out, which is explained explicitly and is what makes Peter realize Mephistopheles is lying. So it's possible the people she possessed simply blacked out or didn't see Peter's face. There are also theories she might have used her psychic abilities more broadly to erase Peter from everyone's mind, and there's the potential these people work for the government and therefore aren't going to expose him while he's still one of their allies.

What comes next for Bruce Banner now that the Savage Hulk has returned

Whose identity is already out there is the Hulk's, and we learn Bruce Banner has been carted away to a psychiatric hospital. The Savage Hulk has returned and, to make matters worse, has attacked a government building rather than just smashing up someone's house, so this is actual Damage Control property. My guess is that the so called hospital could actually be one of their facilities, similar to how we've seen people with powers rounded up and locked away elsewhere in the MCU.

I actually think Damage Control could end up being a pretty big foe, and they might even clash with the Avengers. Yelena is investigating redacted files, and they may discover further shady things going on. I doubt kidnapping and killing kids is the worst of it, and they probably have lots of nefarious projects that Bruce could witness firsthand. Because he's an Avenger the other heroes might want to come and help him, which I don't think Damage Control would be open to.

There are one or two ways this could go from the comics. In the Red Hulk storyline, Bruce was locked underground in an adamantium cell rigged with sleeping gas should he start to turn. World War Hulk took things further and blasted Hulk into space, tying into the Planet Hulk prologue where he goes to a satellite to battle a mysterious AI, only for the Illuminati to appear and tell him he's being shot into space, which is how he ends up on Sakaar. They've already done the Planet Hulk storyline in the MCU, even if it was dumbed down for Thor: Ragnarok, but the idea of blasting him into space is still on the board, as is the potential for a World War Hulk adaptation, since in the comics he returns to Earth with a vengeance for that seminal event. They don't even need to send him to space, since his treatment on Earth might be bad enough that he ends up doing it himself.

The Savage Hulk can't be contained, and now that he's unleashed I think he's waiting to return, possibly ending up in space like Peter in the post-credits scene in a way that ties the two together. I don't think that when the government and the Avengers turn on Hulk, his son Skaar is going to take it lying down, and I do think we're seeing Skaar again after She-Hulk. I'm also guessing Harry Styles's character from Eternals will be back as well. Take it to the bank.

Where Peter is in the post-credits scene, and whether it's really him

I've thought about this quite a lot, and I've already made a few videos on the post-credits scene alone. Because we don't see how Peter actually gets into space, and there's glitching involved as well, I think this Peter in space isn't the Peter we know right now, and I think this is likely leading into Avengers: Doomsday.

I've spoiled who that connects to elsewhere, and since those details come from leaks I'll save that for those pieces rather than get into it here. What I do think is that it's picking up an alternate Peter, which would mean they don't have to explain how Peter went from shaking hands with Ned to being across the universe, or even the multiverse in this case.

Whether Doctor Strange's spell is breaking, and what it means for Ned and MJ

Circling back to that handshake, you might wonder whether Strange's spell is finally broken. Though Jean says there's literally nothing in MJ's head about Peter, I still think Peter is likely buried in her subconscious. That's part of why Ned has such a yearning to find Spider-Man. You could explain that as simply because Spider-Man saved him, but this guy is going above and beyond, developing an app and covering a wall in his room with suspects.

I think being Peter's best friend just makes him feel like something's missing, and because he doesn't know who Peter is, that drive gets focused on Spider-Man instead. Peter and Spider-Man are one and the same to Ned, and he was one of the first people to find out the secret identity, so even though he forgot about Peter, he may not have forgotten everything about Spider-Man. Instead he might question why he was the guy in the chair for someone, or maybe I'm reaching. MJ also still has the black dahlia necklace, and at the end of the film she goes out to the rooftop where she and Peter used to spend time, so deep down there must be something pulling her even if she can't quite put her finger on it.

I think Ned saying Peter's name at the end is him getting past that tip of the tongue feeling, and like MJ on the rooftop with the black dahlia, he's starting to recall things and may even be able to break the spell. Ned has wizarding abilities too and could open portals with his sling ring, so he may be able to cast his own spell or reverse parts of it that bring the memories back. That said, I don't think the memories actually matter, because the movie isn't about holding onto the past, it's about looking to the future and starting things off with a brand new day. Whether Ned remembers or not, it's more about them being friends once more.

I also wondered if this is why Hulk stopped beating on Peter. In our spoiler review, Paris brought up how he saw Hulk as someone who'd been locked in a trunk, which is how Banner described himself in Thor: Ragnarok, and I think Paris put it in the best possible way. Because of that, I wonder if the spell might not have affected that part of Hulk's brain, since he's been locked away since sometime before Infinity War and Endgame and may recall Peter from that time, recognizing him just like Ned did. That's one of those things I'd love to hear people's thoughts on.

Why Damage Control hasn't arrested the Punisher

My mate Theo at Slimehouse TV sent me a question that's been driving me a bit mad, asking why Damage Control didn't arrest the Punisher since he's basically walking around shooting and killing people. I think they might have an uneasy alliance with him. They're not against working with vigilantes, and both the police and Damage Control work alongside Spider-Man, and Punisher is part of the effort trying to stop the tank in the film, so they could view him as someone trying to help.

I also wonder if the Punisher might just be too small potatoes for them. Damage Control seems to only target enhanced individuals with actual powers, and though they went after other figures, it was because that person took responsibility for the destruction of a film set. So I think the Punisher might just be someone they don't really care about.

What do you think is really going on with Bill Metzger, and does Ned or Hulk remember more about Peter than the spell should allow?