‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Ending and Post-Credits Scene Explained

By George & Josh Bate

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day

One of 2026’s most highly anticipated movies is swinging into theaters this week and brings Tom Holland’s friendly neighborhood web-slinger back into theaters.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes place several years after No Way Home and follows a lonely Peter Parker (Tom Holland) navigating life without his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) after Doctor Strange’s spell in the previous made everyone forget who he is. As Peter questions whether to rekindle these cherished relationships or continue thriving as Spider-Man, he undergoes a shocking evolution of his powers that he finds difficult to control. At the same point, he is forced to confront a powerful new enemy threatening New York City.

As is often the case with massive MCU movies, Brand New Day has been shrouded in secrecy since it was officially announced. Who does Sadie Sink play? How does the film follow up and potentially resolve the memory wipe from the end of No Way Home? Does the post-credits scene set up Avengers: Doomsday? All of these questions (and more) are answered in Destin Daniel Cretton’s film and the following article….

Do MJ and Ned Recover Their Memories of Peter?

There are two branches of Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s story. One of these branches follows Peter as he navigates the loneliness that has come with MJ and Ned forgetting who he was and losing all memories of him. The other branch follows Spider-Man as he tries to stop Sadie Sink’s mysterious villain from wrecking havoc on the city. In the film’s final act, both of these branches are resolved, yet left wide open for future Marvel stories to explore.

Throughout the film, Peter has resigned himself to the fact that MJ and Ned do not remember him and that they would better off if he does not try to spark their memories as this may put them in danger, the same way May’s knowledge of his identity and involvement wit his Spider-Man identity ultimately led to her death in the previous film.

But despite Peter’s resignation, he is still greatly affected by the absence of MJ and Ned in his life. This comes to a head when he sees MJ kiss her boyfriend (Eman Esfandi) at a party, leading to an unexpected evolution in his powers brought on by a stress-induced increase in his arachnid hormones.

MJ and Ned clearly feel like something is missing in their lives but are unable to put their fingers on what that exactly is. They know that Spider-Man repeatedly saved them throughout high school, although they have no memory of Peter Parker.

MJ eventually discovers that Peter Parker is Spider-Man when she is hiding out in The Punisher’s safe house. Peter leaves the letter he wrote to MJ revealing what happened with their memories and who he really is around, and MJ manages to find it and read it when Peter is not looking. Unfortunatley for Peter, reading the letter does not bring back the memories for MJ. Instead, she empathizes with Peter’s troubles, while acknowledging that she does not love him. “I don’t even know you,” she says.

MJ later takes Spider-Man to her apartment and introduces him to Ned, who is a massive fan of Spider-Man ever since the masked hero repeatedly saved their lives year prior. Spider-Man and Ned have fun building LEGOs together and MJ notes that they look like best friends (and also accidentally slips that Spider-Man’s real first name is Peter). But despite their instant chemistry, Ned does not remember Peter at all.

This changes, however, in the film’s final scene. Peter walks into a cafe and sees Ned sitting at a table enjoying a meal. Peter approaches Ned, who recognizes him as “flower guy,” a reference to Peter gifting flowers to MJ at a party earlier in the film. At the party, Peter introduced himself to MJ and Ned as “Maynard,” but here he introduces himself as “Peter.” Peter then goes in for a handshake with Ned, which slowly yet effortlessly transitions into their secret handshake – the same handshake that they did throughout the previous three Spidey films. Ned’s instinctive knowledge of the handshake suggests that, deep down, his memories of Peter are still there. Ned utters the last word of the film, “Peter” with an ounce of familiarity in his voice.

Who Does Sadie Sink Play? And What Happens To Her Character and Peter in the End?

The worst kept secret in the multiverse is finally revaled in Brand New Day. Yes, Sadie Sink is playing Jean Grey.

In the film, Jean inhabits people’s minds in order to stage attacks against Damage Control facilities across New York City. As revealed in a flashback, her primary motivation is to be reunited with her sister Sara, who was kidnapped by Damage Control as they hope to run experiments on her that will allow them to replicate her telepathic powers.

Spider-Man, however, is not privy to the duplicitious nature of Damage Control and its figure head Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman). As such, he and The Punisher fight Jean and turn her over to Damage Control, who start doing experiments on her.

Sometime later, it dawns on Peter that Damage Control boss Metzger was lying about his organization’s true intentions. This leads Peter to infilitrate Damage Control and rescue Jean, who Peter views as a misunderstood woman simply trying to be reunited with his sister.

As this occurs, Damage Control’s experiments go wrong and Jean finds a way to expand her powers after discovering that her sister Sara died while being experimented on. She uses her telepathic abilities to freeze everyone within a massive radius of the Damage Control facility and torments Metzger before trying to kill him.

Meanwhile, The Punisher / Frank Castle does not see Jean as a misunderstood woman but a threat to the entire city. As such, he travels to the roof of a building across from the Damage Control facility and lines up a sniper shot to take Jean out once and for all.

Peter finally confronts Jean, whose anger dissipates upon entering Peter’s mind and experiencing a flashback to a heart-to-heart Peter shared with May. In the flashback, May comforts Peter as he struggles with the weight of expectation associated with being Spider-Man. She tells him that he is loved, not because he is special, but because of who he is. This just so happens to be exactly what Jean needs to hear. She subsequently calms down and lets go of her stranglehold of the city.

But at this moment, The Punisher is unaware of Jean’s change of heart and fires of a shot to kill her. Peter senses the incoming shot and dives in front of the bullet. Bleeding out on the ground, Jean shouts for help.

After this, The Punisher is seen carrying a masked Spider-Man into the hospital. People gather outside the hospital with signs and chants to convey to Spider-Man how much he is supported.

Some time later, Peter wakes up in the hospital bed and sees Frank sleeping on the chair next to him. Frank tears up as he talks about how good of a kid Peter is. Peter pokes fun at Frank for crying, after which Peter sneaks out of the hospital in civilian clothes as Frank puts on the Spider-Man mask and gloves and waves to all the people from his hospital room window.

In the crowd, everyone is paying attention to Frank in the window, except for one young boy dressed as Spider-Man. Somehow, the boy knows Peter is spell and makes the web-shooting hand gesture to him. Peter returns the favor by doing the web-shooting hand gesture back to the boy. He then disappears into the crowd.

Post-Credits Scene Explained

There is no mid-credits scene, but there is an intriguing post-credits scene that teases the future of Spider-Man.

After the credits roll, Ned’s Spidey-Tracker app appears on screen and shows a symbol that indicates Spider-Man is in New York. Slowly, the symbol begins to move east, outside of New York and eventually outside of the U.S., outside of Earth, and into space.

So, what does this post-credits scene mean? Well, one interpretation is that it indicates that Spider-Man after the events of Brand New Day makes his way into space, presumably to battle some intergalactic enemy. The scene may also mean that Spider-Man has made his way to another universe, which could suggest that the Spider-Man popping up on the tracking app is either Tom Holland’s Spider-Man traversing the multiverse or a Spider-Man from another universe, such as Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield’s versions of the characters.

The film concludes with on-screen text reading: “Spider-Man will return.” Although it does not specify where and when he will return, it feels like an increasingly safe bet to assume Spider-Man will be in Avengers: Doomsday. Rumors that Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man features at the beginning of the movie will seemingly only become more intense after this post-credits scene, but, logically, it also makes sense that Holland appears in the film, givn that some of it takes place in New York City and involves Yelena, a character who he knows and interacts with in this movie. If Yelena is leading The New Avengers into battle against Doom or the X-Men, why wouldn’t she bring Spider-Man along?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now