Destin Daniel Cretton Believes Secrecy Around Sadie Sink’s Role Makes ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ a Better Movie

On the heels of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ warm reception, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige went back and forth for a while about what superhero movie he would make next. At one point, his follow-up was going to be the still-in-development Shang-Chi 2. At another point, it was intended to be an earlier iteration of what is now Avengers: Doomsday. 

In between it all, Cretton co-created and directed two episodes of the MCU’s Wonder Man series for Disney+. The critical darling chronicles a loner actor named Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) whose secret superpowers threaten to derail the biggest role of his career. The show would ultimately land Abdul-Mateen II an Emmy nom, but while it was still in post-production, Feige approached Cretton about telling the story of another lonely guy: Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland). 

“After talking to Kevin Feige a little bit about it, I met with [Spider-Man producer] Amy Pascal. They were looking for a [more grounded] story that was going to explore some of the deeper issues that Peter might be going through during this time of isolation,” Cretton tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s July 31 theatrical release. “I really gravitated toward exploring a character who is, by every sense of the word, completely alone. The character hasn’t really experienced this before in his life. I’ve been through those stages. And I think it’s a subject that a lot of people will relate to right now.”

Peter’s loneliness stems from Jon Watts’ trilogy capper, Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). His secret identity had already been exposed by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and during Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) effort to erase the memories of anyone who knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker’s alter ego, Peter corrupts the spell mid-casting by asking to exclude those closest to him, including his girlfriend and best friend, MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). Consequently, the multiverse is opened up to all of Spider-Man’s enemies who know his real name, as well as the two other live-action Spideys, played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. 

In the end, the three Peters and Strange cannot fend off the arrival of more multiversal threats who know Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Thus, Peter makes the ultimate sacrifice by asking Strange to cast a new spell that erases everyone’s memory of Peter Parker including MJ and Ned.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the ninth live-action Spidey film, picks up four years later, as Peter is focused solely on Spider-Man duty at the expense of his personal life. He still routinely keeps tabs on MJ and Ned’s social media accounts, especially now that the two MIT grads have moved back to New York City to share an apartment and begin their professional lives. Shortly thereafter, Peter can’t help but interact with MJ and Ned as a stranger to them.

“There were definitely moments where Tom, after we yelled cut, was legitimately feeling left out by his two best friends not paying much attention to him,” Cretton shares. “Some of the best scenes in this movie are when you see the three of them together. They have such a magical chemistry that you can’t really fake on screen. It’s a gift that was given to me by Jon Watts.”

Spider-Man: No Way Home went out of its way to keep the returns of Maguire and Garfield a secret ahead of its release. But despite the best of intentions to genuinely surprise audiences, the endeavor didn’t quite go as planned due to various forms of online leaks. As a result, the iconic team-up of all three live-action Peter Parkers became the worst-kept secret in Hollywood. But if a 12-year-old Spider-Man fan in Dubuque, Iowa, got to watch the film without any foreknowledge, then the gambit was more than worth it. 

Surprisingly, the aggravation that the Spider-Man team endured five years ago hasn’t stopped them from applying a similar playbook to Sadie Sink’s top-secret role in Brand New Day. The Stranger Things star is not being completely concealed like Maguire and Garfield were as cast members, but her character’s identity has been kept well under wraps. Cretton asserts that it’s not about trying to follow in the footsteps of No Way Home.

“I don’t think there’s any way of trying to emulate the last movie. In terms of stakes, you can’t really go bigger than that last movie,” Cretton says. “So rather than trying to go bigger, we were hoping to go deeper in a different way.”

Instead, Cretton is of the mind that the moviegoing experience will be richer by not knowing the details of Sink’s role.

“Keeping what Sadie’s doing under wraps, you’ll honestly understand when you see the movie. The movie is a better movie if you don’t know certain things,” Cretton says. “I wish people didn’t know anything when they go in to watch this movie, but we’re not doing it for any other reason but to protect the experience of the fans. And whoever goes on opening weekend, you are going to have a much cooler experience if you go in not knowing certain things.”

Below, during a conversation with THR, Cretton also discusses how Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/The Punisher was achieved in a PG-13 context, before explaining why a particular Spider-Man shot required at least 65 takes. 

During our interview for Shang-Chi, something interrupted you mid-thought. Something swung down into your field of vision, and it turned out to be a spider. 

You located its web and carefully moved it out of your eyeline. I then joked that it must be an omen, and I’m now choosing to believe it was a sign that Spider-Man was destined to be your next movie. Considering you’d also been flirting with Shang-Chi 2 and Avengers 5 at different points, when did it first hit you that you were meant to do Brand New Day? 

It was when I had my first meeting. After talking to Kevin Feige a little bit about it, I went in and met with [producer] Amy Pascal. I heard about the direction that they wanted to take the franchise and what they were after for this next movie. They were looking for a story that was going to be a bit more grounded and explore some of the deeper issues that Peter might be going through during this time of isolation. So I really gravitated toward exploring a character who is, by every sense of the word, completely alone. 

The character hasn’t really experienced this before in his life. He’s always had somebody to lean on and a wonderful community around him. So to be able to explore that emotion is something that I know I relate to. I’ve really been there. I’ve been through those stages in life. And I think it’s a subject that a lot of people will relate to right now.

Yeah, No Way Home left the character in this place of isolation and anonymity. Anyone who knew Peter Parker no longer remembers Peter Parker. I assume that dangling thread was the crux of every draft, so did the pieces around it change quite a bit?

Oh yeah. The way that these movies are made, it’s just an ever-changing puzzle that begins in the writers’ room. Tom came in with ideas, and then each of our department heads started creating. Charlie Wood, our production designer, started showing me new drawings of some of the sets or places that we could go, and everything sparked new ideas. So the script was just a constantly changing beast. 

The most difficult thing for me to get used to when I started doing these bigger movies was how much evolution happens throughout the process. But it has now become the part that I find the most exhilarating, and I really love getting new input. It’s always my decision to know what is actually making the movie better and what is something to say no to.

It’s rare to have your lead actor in the writers’ room. Did Tom contribute a great deal of material?

Tom, surprisingly, has a writer’s brain. It’s not just because he’s played this character for three movies; he understands story. He comes in with big ideas, but he also really understands the process of writing. He knows what could actually fit into the movie and enhance it. He knows that it’s our job to throw out any idea we have, and while no idea is bad, it’s also our job to know when an idea doesn’t quite fit the movie. So he was very good at being a part of the team.

MJ and Ned interact with Peter in a whole new way. He’s just some random guy to them now. Did Zendaya and Jacob Batalon seem to enjoy treating Tom as a stranger during action and cut?