Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene explained: How [spoilers] sets up Avengers: Secret Wars

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is an excellent Spider-Man movie, and easily the best of all of Spider-Man’s adventures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s tons of great action with Spider-Man (Tom Holland), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), and a solid twist with the film’s villains. The movie also has a really good story that pays off in emotional ways for all the major players.

It’s so good that it’s worth taking a minute after the film to absorb it all. And, while you’re still in the theater, you might as well stick around for the so-so post-credits scene. But what does that post-credits scene reveal about Spider-Man’s future in the MCU? Let’s take a closer look.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s post-credits scene, explained

There are no mid-credits scenes for Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the post-credits scene is a small one. In the film, Ned (Jacob Batalon) creates an app called “Spidey Tracker” where people can log sightings of Spider-Man. There’s also a funny scene in the film where Ned swears the app isn’t creepy; he just wants to thank Spider-Man for saving him and his classmates on previous occasions.

In the post-credits scene, we again see the Spidey Tracker, which announces a new sighting. The map on the tracker then zooms out from New York to show the entire world. Then it moves from Earth, past the Moon, and places the new Spider-Man sighting in space.

Then it ends.

Presumably, this is a hint at what is to come in either Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. Doomsday hits theaters this December and, as of yet, Tom Holland has not been confirmed for the film. He may end up being a surprise addition to the cast, but we may not know that until the film is released. If this is a hint as something in Doomsday, it’s unclear why Spider-Man would be in space. While we know the Fantastic Four arrive from space from the ending of Thunderbolts*, the trailers for Doomsday mostly seem Earthbound. Even the scenes we might assume take place in other dimensions seem to be on an alternate version of Earth.

More likely, the post-credits scene in Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a hint at what’s to come in Secret Wars, but even that raises some questions. Presumably, Secret Wars will be based on the 2015 Marvel Comics event, also named Secret Wars, where Marvel’s main universe merged with alternate Marvel universes, like the Ultimate universe, which is why Miles Morales is now a character in the main Marvel universe. The movie Secret Wars is expected to do the same by merging the Marvel Cinematic Universe with what was Fox’s X-Men universe, and the universe where the Fantastic Four reside in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Except, the Secret Wars comic book is mostly Earthbound too, as Earth is the incursion point where universes collide. So, again, why is Spider-Man going to space?

Image: Sony

Perhaps the Secret Wars film is also drawing from the original Secret Wars from the 1980s, where a bunch of Marvel heroes and villains battle it out on a distant planet called Battleworld for the amusement of a being known as the Beyonder. Spider-Man plays a huge part in that story, and it’s where he first got his black suit, which was later revealed to be the symbiote known as Venom.

Or maybe the Spidey Tracker post-credits scene shouldn’t be taken quite so literally. Maybe Spider-Man isn’t so much “in space” as he is “beyond Earth,” which would make sense for the multiversal elements of both Doomsday and Secret Wars.

Regardless, it does make me wonder who, exactly, logged this Spider-Man sighting. After all, if you’re an Avenger, and

you’re supposed to be killing Doctor Doom, I really, really hope you’re not glaring at your phone to log a new Spider-Man sighting.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now.