Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Scrapped Cut Reportedly Leaned on Sony's Venom Plans, and Tom Holland Hated It

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is crushing it at the box office right now and fans love it, but the original cut that Tom Holland saw was apparently something he hated, and it got drastically changed into what ended up in theaters.

Originally, Sony wanted one thing, Marvel wanted another thing, and the fans wanted something different as well. They put everything together, made a version of it, and Tom Holland hated it. He said so himself. As he put it: "What's interesting is, we've seen loads of different cuts of this movie and one of the cuts was they took all of the notes from all of the random people that saw the film and they changed the movie. And then we watched it and we hated it. It totally didn't work and it's what the people were asking for, but it wasn't quite what we wanted as the creatives."

Luckily, they went back in and said no, this does not work, even though Tom Holland says it is what the people wanted. So let me break down what this movie might have been, based on what a bunch of random people who saw parts of the movie apparently wanted, compared to what we actually got.

Sony's original plan reportedly leaned on the Venom Symbiote and Knull as the villain

This project was coming off Venom: The Last Dance, and Sony reportedly wanted Venom in the MCU, specifically Tom Hardy's Venom. I think that is one of the things Tom Holland was talking about when he said it is what the fans wanted, but it apparently did not really work.

That might be why there are seemingly hints of the Venom Symbiote in the finished movie, like the black eyes Spider-Man has. They could have started the story with Venom and changed it into Peter going through some kind of metamorphosis because of the spider DNA in him. We will never know for sure, but based on what I am hearing, that seems like the direction they were originally headed.

In Sony's original plan, Peter Parker would have bonded with the Venom Symbiote in the MCU, with Knull as the main villain, and it would make sense for Tom Hardy's Venom to be part of that too, since I think they set that up in the last movie. A lot of plans reportedly changed over at Sony and at Marvel Studios, but Knull was supposed to be the villain bridging the Sony universe into our universe.

The scrapped cut would reportedly have brought back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, plus Vulture and Morbius

On top of the Venom plans, there were reportedly post-credit scenes involving Vulture and Morbius, tying the multiverse into this Spider-Man, which just sounds like a big mess. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were also supposed to return again in this version.

I am really glad they did not return here, because I think it was such a precious moment when they returned in the past. It was an amazing moment. When I watched it for the first time, everybody was cheering, and I think I stood up when I saw both Spider-Man along with a lot of other people. You do not want to cheapen that. I think it is cool that they could return in Doomsday and Secret Wars instead, because that is a massive event, not just another random movie or another entry in the Spider-Man franchise. I think not going that route here was the best direction.

Vulture and Morbius were reportedly set to return as well, since Sony apparently wanted to pay off that post-credit scene for whatever reason. So Peter would have had the Venom Symbiote, we would have had the other two Spider-Man, and we would have had these other multiversal characters coming into play. This was reportedly in the original plan, the movie meant to connect the Sony Spider-Man adjacent universe with the MCU Spider-Man.

I am so glad they did not do that, because I do not think it would have worked, and apparently it did not work. According to Tom Holland, he hated it, and he did not just say he hated it, he said "they" hated it, so maybe that includes Jacob Batalon as well, who knows.

Marvel Studios reportedly pushed for a grounded story built around loss

Marvel Studios, on the other hand, reportedly wanted a really grounded, street-level story focused on Peter Parker. They wanted Peter to deal with the loss of Aunt May, the loss of MJ, and the loss of Ned. They wanted street-level villains, and they wanted new characters that would help shape the future of the MCU.

It seems like Marvel Studios won that argument, because that is essentially what we got.

Why Jean Grey ended up shaping the future of the MCU

To dive into some spoilers, the new character shaping the future of the MCU is Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink, which lines up with the big X-Men announcement. Peter Parker also shapes the future of the MCU by creating an inhibitor device, and while inhibitors have shown up before around things like Civil War, I really think they are going to build this into a bigger device meant to hinder mutant powers going forward.

That piece might actually have been Sony's call, because Sony reportedly requested that the movie include an Avenger, an X-Men character, and a Marvel television character. I am not sure how true that report is, and honestly I do not know if Sony would have that kind of pull.

I can see Sony agreeing not to do the multiversal thing, not bringing Morbius back, not bringing Vulture back, but still wanting a lot of characters in the film, which might be why we got so many characters and why Marvel Studios probably built that quick montage at the start where Spider-Man fights a bunch of different people. Some people thought that was way too quick, since we only saw some of these characters for about four seconds, and Tombstone got roughly fifteen seconds, when a lot of us expected him to be a decently sized character.

Based on what I have heard, it seems like Destin Daniel Cretton came up with the Jean Grey idea. I do not think Sony would have said put an X-Man in it as a requirement, maybe just that it would be cool, but I do not think that was a mandate. Going into Avengers: Doomsday, they could have done a multiverse-heavy version that worked, and the only real multiversal beat we got was that post-credit scene, which I interpret as Spider-Man being taken to Battleworld.

My verdict on the finished film

I think it is kind of cool they did not go the multiversal route, because the final product we got is a really, really great movie, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, with amazing stunts and amazing hand to hand combat. It is crushing it in theaters right now and everybody loves it.

We got the street-level villains and the grounded story Marvel wanted. I know some people still point out that the Hulk, the Punisher, and Juggernaut were all in it, so there was a lot going on, but I still think it heavily tied into Peter Parker dealing with being alone and an outsider. One of the biggest things is that he still chose to help Jean Grey at the end and took the bullet for her, which I think is such a big Peter Parker characteristic, not giving up on people even after they have done something crazy.

I know a lot of people are still hung up on Jean Grey jumping into someone's mind and causing them to get hit by a car, even though Marvel did say that person is still alive and she technically did not kill anybody. I understand people had issues with that, but that is what is so great about Peter Parker, that he can still try to see the good in people, and that is honestly what made the clash between him and the Punisher so great in the movie too.

I really loved everything about Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I am glad we did not get the version Sony reportedly wanted, and I am glad we did not get a muddier compromise between Sony and Marvel either, because what we got instead was Marvel largely taking the lead, throwing in a lot of characters, keeping the plot strong, and it has made a huge amount of money, into the billions.

Would you have wanted to see some of these other things, like the Venom Symbiote or the other Spider-Man, make it into the final cut, or are you happy with the version we got?