The best Spider-Man movie we almost got might have been the worst Spider-Man movie we almost got.
According to scooper @MyTimeToShineH, Sony boss Tom Rothman “really wanted Jon Watts back for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” When that didn’t happen—Watts walked away from the franchise after the pandemic-era grind of shooting No Way Home left him depleted—Rothman pivoted to Ruben Fleischer, the Venom director. Kevin Feige said no. Instead, Marvel Studios courted Destin Daniel Cretton, the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings helmer, who ultimately landed the job.
That rejection tells us everything about where these two studios see Spider-Man going. And where they absolutely don’t want him to end up.
The Fleischer Question
Here’s my confession: I have complicated feelings about Ruben Fleischer.
Zombieland is genuinely great. That opening sequence—the rules appearing on screen, the slow-motion chaos, Bill Murray‘s cameo—remains one of the best horror-comedy openings of the past two decades. I remember the sticky theater floor, the smell of artificial butter, the collective laughter when Murray took that shotgun blast. Peak cinema of a very specific kind.
Then came everything else. Gangster Squad. Venom. Uncharted. A filmography that suggests diminishing returns, or at least diminishing control. Venom made money—serious money—but the creative reception was… not kind. Mixed-to-negative reviews. A tone that couldn’t decide if it was horror, comedy, or buddy movie. A performance from Tom Hardy that seemed to exist in a different film than everyone else around him.
Fleischer himself has spoken candidly about Venom‘s constraints. “That was the first real Spider-Man-affiliated movie,” he explained recently. “We were all trying to figure out exactly what that wants to be. ‘Venom’ was always defined by Spider-Man—our movie couldn’t feature Spider-Man. So it created an interesting challenge.”
Interesting is one word for it. Crippling is another.
The Symbiote Without the Spider
The Venom franchise existed in a creative purgatory that Fleischer never fully escaped. The character’s entire origin, in the comics, requires Spider-Man. The white spider on the chest. The hatred born from rejection. The dark mirror dynamic that makes Venom compelling. Sony had to invent a workaround—a different origin, a different chest pattern, a symbiote that bonds with Eddie Brock for reasons entirely divorced from Peter Parker.
“It’s funny because in the comics, Venom has a spider on his chest, and that’s because he derives from Spider-Man,” Fleischer noted. “We had to come up with a whole new origin story and actually create a different pattern on his chest, unique for the film, because it wouldn’t have made sense if he had a spider on his chest if he had no affiliation with Spider-Man.”
The franchise worked financially. Three films. Billions of dollars. But the creative compromise was baked into the foundation. Every Venom movie had to dance around the Spider-Man-shaped hole at its center.
Would bringing Fleischer to Brand New Day have finally bridged that gap? Tom Holland‘s Peter Parker meeting Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock? The crossover fans have speculated about since Venom dropped?
Maybe. But Feige clearly saw a different problem: importing the tonal inconsistency that plagued Sony’s solo efforts into the MCU’s carefully managed Spider-Man corner.
Why Cretton Makes Sense
Destin Daniel Cretton is not an obvious blockbuster filmmaker. Before Shang-Chi, his credits included Short Term 12 and Just Mercy—intimate dramas about trauma, injustice, and human connection. The kind of films that play festivals and win acting nominations but don’t generally lead to hundred-million-dollar budgets.
Shang-Chi proved he could scale up without losing the emotional core. The film’s best scenes aren’t the CGI battles—they’re the quiet moments between Simu Liu and Tony Leung, father and son circling old wounds. Cretton found the family drama inside the superhero spectacle.
That skill set matters for Brand New Day. The cast—Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal as Punisher, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Michael Mando as Scorpion, Florence Pugh potentially as Yelena—suggests a film with significant character work required. This isn’t just action choreography. It’s ensemble management. It’s finding the human moments between the web-slinging.
Cretton knows how to do that. Fleischer’s track record suggests he struggles with it. The Feige veto starts to make sense when you consider what the film apparently needs to accomplish.
The Rothman Factor
Tom Rothman wanted Watts back. When he couldn’t get Watts, he wanted continuity with Sony’s existing Spider-adjacent properties. Fleischer directed their biggest solo success. The logic is straightforward, even if the creative fit is questionable.
But here’s the tension that defines the Sony-Marvel partnership: Sony owns the character, but Marvel Studios manages the creative direction of the MCU appearances. Rothman can want whatever he wants. Feige has veto power—and uses it.
This particular rejection signals something larger. Marvel is apparently done pretending the Sony Venom films exist in the same creative universe, regardless of the multiverse hand-waving that No Way Home and Venom: Let There Be Carnage attempted. The rumored plan involves Marvel developing its own Symbiote storyline, likely with Mac Gargan (Michael Mando’s Scorpion) wearing the alien suit rather than Eddie Brock.
That’s a clean break. A reset. A statement that whatever Sony built with Hardy and Fleischer stays in Sony’s corner.
The Director Who Walked Away
The origin of this whole mess is Jon Watts, and I keep thinking about what he sacrificed. The man directed three Spider-Man films, each more successful than the last. No Way Home became one of the highest-grossing films in history. He was supposed to follow that with The Fantastic Four. Instead, he walked away from both.
Pandemic filmmaking broke something in him. The isolation, the protocols, the grind of managing a massive production under impossible conditions. He looked at another decade of superhero franchises and chose… something else.
I can’t blame him. I also can’t help wondering what his Brand New Day would have looked like. The continuity. The relationships already established. The understanding of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker that only comes from three films together.
We’ll never know. Instead, we get Cretton. Which might be better. Or worse. Or just different in ways we can’t predict until July 31, 2026.
That’s the thing about Hollywood’s sliding doors moments. You only get to live in one timeline.
What Spider-Man Brand New Day’s Director Drama Reveals
- Feige protects MCU creative consistency — The rejection of Fleischer signals Marvel’s unwillingness to import Sony’s tonal inconsistencies into their corner of the Spider-Man franchise.
- Sony’s Venom universe remains separate — Despite financial success, the Hardy/Fleischer films apparently don’t influence MCU planning. Marvel is developing its own Symbiote direction.
- Cretton brings character-first filmmaking — His background in intimate drama suggests Brand New Day will prioritize emotional storytelling over pure spectacle.
- Pandemic burnout reshapes franchises — Watts’ departure created this entire situation. Creative exhaustion has real consequences for franchise continuity.
- Rothman and Feige have different priorities — Sony’s boss wanted commercial continuity with existing properties. Marvel’s boss wanted creative alignment with MCU standards.
FAQ
Why did Kevin Feige reject Ruben Fleischer for Spider-Man Brand New Day?
Because Fleischer’s track record screams tonal inconsistency. Venom made money but couldn’t decide what kind of movie it wanted to be. Feige has spent years carefully managing Spider-Man’s MCU integration—he wasn’t about to risk that cohesion by importing Sony’s messier creative sensibilities.
Would Fleischer directing have meant a Venom crossover with Holland’s Spider-Man?
Possibly, which might be exactly why Feige blocked it. Marvel reportedly has its own Symbiote plans involving Mac Gargan, not Eddie Brock. A Fleischer-directed film might have pressured them into crossover territory they’re actively avoiding.
Does Jon Watts walking away hurt Spider-Man Brand New Day’s chances?
It removes continuity but might add freshness. Watts understood Holland’s Peter Parker intimately, but he was also exhausted. A burnt-out director makes compromised films. Cretton arrives without that baggage—whether that’s advantage or disadvantage depends on execution.
Has Marvel Studios effectively abandoned any connection to Sony’s Venom films?
Signs point to yes. The multiverse allowed plausible deniability for shared existence, but creative decisions suggest Marvel is building toward their own Symbiote narrative. The Fleischer rejection feels like a formal boundary being drawn.
The sliding doors of Hollywood create infinite phantom films—the versions that almost happened, the directors who almost signed, the crossovers that almost materialized. Somewhere in a parallel timeline, Ruben Fleischer is finishing post-production on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock is finally meeting Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. Whether that movie is better or worse than what we’re getting, we’ll never know. We only get to live in this timeline—the one where Feige said no, where Cretton said yes, and where July 2026 holds answers to questions we haven’t thought to ask yet. That uncertainty might be the most Spider-Man thing about this whole mess.
