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Does Spider-Man: Brand New Day Set Up Avengers: Doomsday? The Ending Explained
Warning: Major spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, including the ending and post-credits scene.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day may have given fans one of the biggest MCU mysteries of 2026.
The movie gives Peter Parker a surprisingly personal ending, closes the door on one chapter of his life, and then — right at the end of the credits — throws a completely unexpected image at the audience.
The Spidey Tracker glitches.
Peter Parker disappears from the map.
Then the camera pulls farther and farther away until the tracker identifies a Spider-Man somewhere that appears to be far beyond Earth.
And then comes the message:
Spider-Man will return.
That's it.
No Tom Holland.
No Doctor Doom.
No Avengers.
No explanation.
Just a Spider-Man signal apparently coming from somewhere in outer space or another reality.
Naturally, the internet immediately started asking the same question:
Is Spider-Man: Brand New Day secretly setting up Avengers: Doomsday?
The answer is complicated.
The movie does not officially confirm that the scene is a direct Doomsday setup. But when the scene is placed alongside Marvel's current multiverse storyline, the Avengers films, the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, and the comics that could inspire Secret Wars, there are several fascinating possibilities.
Here's what the ending actually tells us — and what it could mean for Peter Parker's future.
What Actually Happens at the End of Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
Before getting into the theories, we need to separate what the movie actually shows from what fans are assuming.
The final act of Brand New Day revolves heavily around Jean Grey and the enormous expansion of her psychic abilities.
Jean's powers grow dramatically, allowing her to affect people from a much greater distance. Her psychic influence eventually reaches MJ and Ned's apartment, putting Peter's closest friends directly inside the conflict.
Peter, however, is able to resist Jean's influence.
Instead of simply fighting her, Peter enters her mind and reaches a much more emotional part of the confrontation.
Jean encounters Peter's memories of Aunt May, who reminds them that their worth isn't determined by how powerful they become.
For Jean, the encounter becomes a turning point.
Peter manages to reach her emotionally, convincing her that she isn't alone.
But before the situation can fully resolve, Frank Castle — the Punisher — takes aim at Jean.
He fires.
Peter senses the shot and jumps in front of Jean.
He is badly wounded but survives.
Jean then uses her powers to help keep Peter alive, while the psychic hold over everyone else is broken.
Peter eventually recovers in the hospital.
And that's where the movie delivers what appears to be the emotional conclusion to his story.
Peter walks back into the world as Spider-Man, seeing the effect his actions have had on ordinary people.
For once, Peter isn't simply fighting to survive.
He's beginning to understand what his life as Spider-Man actually means.
But there's one potentially massive detail hidden inside the ending.
Did MJ and Ned Remember Peter Parker?
This is one of the most interesting unanswered questions in the entire movie.
After Spider-Man: No Way Home, MJ and Ned were supposed to have forgotten Peter Parker completely.
Peter chose that sacrifice because the spell required everyone to forget him in order to stop the multiversal crisis.
But Brand New Day may have quietly complicated that situation.
During Jean Grey's psychic attack, MJ is shown reacting emotionally, including a moment involving the necklace Peter gave her.
At the end of the movie, Ned also appears to have a strange reaction during his interaction with Peter.
The movie never directly says:
“MJ and Ned remember Peter.”
But the implication is strong enough that viewers have started debating whether Jean's powers accidentally broke through the memory manipulation.
Forbes similarly notes that the movie leaves room for the possibility that Jean's powers may have triggered memories in MJ and Ned.
If that's true, it would be a huge development.
Peter spent years believing that his closest friends had completely forgotten him.
Now, without Doctor Strange casting another spell, the memories may be starting to come back.
And if Jean can accidentally disrupt the effects of Strange's spell, it raises an even bigger question:
What else from Peter's erased past could eventually return?
Then Comes the Post-Credits Scene
After the emotional ending, Brand New Day suddenly changes gears.
There is only one post-credits scene.
And interestingly, it doesn't feature any actors or traditional live-action footage.
Instead, we see the Spidey Tracker, the application created by Ned Leeds to locate Spider-Man.
Throughout the movie, the app is designed around reported Spider-Man sightings.
Then something strange happens.
The tracker glitches.
The Spider-Man icon disappears.
The map pulls farther away.
And suddenly, the system appears to locate Spider-Man somewhere in space.
TheWrap describes the scene as deliberately light on information: we know the tracker has detected a Spider-Man, but we don't know where exactly he is or even which Spider-Man the signal represents.
Then the movie ends.
That ambiguity is almost certainly intentional.
Because Marvel has now given fans a simple image capable of connecting several massive MCU storylines.
So, Is That Spider-Man Peter Parker?
Maybe.
And that's where things get interesting.
The obvious interpretation is that Tom Holland's Peter Parker has somehow ended up somewhere beyond Earth.
But the movie never actually confirms that.
The signal could theoretically belong to another Spider-Man.
And the MCU has no shortage of possibilities.
There are already multiple Spider-Men connected to the live-action multiverse, including Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker and Andrew Garfield's version, both of whom entered Earth-616 during Spider-Man: No Way Home.
There are also countless other Spider-Man variants across the multiverse.
Miles Morales.
Gwen Stacy.
Miguel O'Hara.
And potentially many more.
The post-credits scene therefore raises a much bigger question than simply:
“Where is Peter?”
It asks:
“Which Spider-Man is the tracker actually detecting?”
Theory 1: Peter Parker Is Being Pulled Into the Multiverse
One possibility is that Peter himself is being dragged into the larger multiversal conflict.
The idea becomes particularly interesting when you consider what an incursion means within Marvel's multiverse.
An incursion occurs when separate realities come into conflict, potentially causing universes to collide and destroy one another.
The MCU has already established this concept, and it is expected to play an important role in the larger Avengers storyline.
If the boundaries between realities are beginning to break down, Spider-Man appearing somewhere far beyond Earth could be a visual hint that Peter's reality is no longer completely isolated.
In this scenario, the tracker isn't simply showing Peter traveling through space.
It could be detecting a Spider-Man who has crossed into another reality.
That would make the scene a potentially significant piece of the MCU's multiverse puzzle.
TheWrap has similarly identified an incursion-related explanation as one of the major possibilities, although the publication also points out that the apparent location of the signal makes the theory difficult to prove from the scene alone.
Theory 2: It's Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield
This is the theory that could absolutely explode across social media if Marvel eventually confirms it.
What if the Spider-Man detected by the tracker isn't Tom Holland?
What if it's Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker?
Or Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man?
Both characters already have a direct connection to the MCU after No Way Home.
And both remain incredibly popular with fans.
If another Spider-Man universe is experiencing an incursion, the post-credits scene could be showing the beginning of that universe's collapse.
That would create an enormous bridge between Brand New Day and the next Avengers movies.
Imagine Avengers: Doomsday revealing that another Spider-Man's universe has become one of the realities caught in the multiversal collision.
Suddenly, the tiny Spider-Man icon from the end of Brand New Day becomes much more important.
It could have been the first warning.
There is currently no official confirmation that the signal belongs to Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield.
But from a storytelling perspective, either possibility would make the scene significantly more consequential.
Theory 3: Spider-Man Is Heading Toward the Fantastic Four
There's another possibility that doesn't require Peter to have been transported to another universe.
He could simply be traveling through space.
And if that's the case, there's one group in the MCU that immediately comes to mind:
The Fantastic Four.
Marvel has already established the Fantastic Four as major players in the upcoming Avengers storyline.
Their connection to space also makes them an interesting candidate for explaining why Spider-Man might suddenly appear far away from Earth.
One interpretation is that Peter could somehow join the Fantastic Four on a space mission.
That would also be a major development because Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four have a long history together in Marvel Comics.
Another possibility is even more complicated:
The Fantastic Four could encounter another Spider-Man during their own multiversal journey.
TheWrap points to this as one of the possible explanations for the mysterious signal, while acknowledging that it requires several assumptions that the movie itself does not confirm.
Still, the timing is hard to ignore.
The Fantastic Four are already deeply connected to the upcoming multiverse storyline.
And Doctor Doom is at the center of that story.
Which brings us to the most important possibility.
Theory 4: The Scene Is Actually Setting Up Avengers: Doomsday
This is the theory most fans want to know about.
And there is a strong reason why.
Tom Holland's Spider-Man was notably absent from the previously announced Avengers: Doomsday cast.
That immediately raised questions.
How could Marvel release a new Spider-Man movie shortly before Doomsday and then leave Spider-Man out of the massive crossover?
One explanation is that Marvel is deliberately hiding something.
Another is that Peter's major role has been saved for the next Avengers movie after Doomsday.
GQ points out that Holland's absence from the announced Doomsday lineup has fueled speculation that Marvel may be saving him for Avengers: Secret Wars instead.
But the Brand New Day post-credits scene complicates that theory.
Because Marvel is clearly telling us:
Spider-Man is going somewhere.
The question is where.
Could This Be the Beginning of an Incursion?
Here's where the theory gets really interesting.
Suppose the Spider-Man detected by the tracker isn't actually Peter from Earth-616.
Suppose the signal comes from another universe.
That could mean the MCU is beginning to detect other realities before they physically collide.
If so, Brand New Day could be quietly introducing the concept of incursions before Avengers: Doomsday makes them central to the larger story.
This would be classic Marvel storytelling.
A seemingly insignificant post-credits scene becomes much more important several movies later.
The signal could represent the first visible sign that another universe is approaching.
And if that universe contains another Spider-Man, Marvel would have a very convenient way to bring the multiversal Spider-Men back into the story.
But there's another theory that may be even bigger.
What If the Scene Is Actually Setting Up Secret Wars?
This may be the strongest long-term interpretation.
In Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars storyline, the multiverse reaches a catastrophic breaking point because of incursions.
Eventually, Doctor Doom becomes one of the central figures in the creation of Battleworld, a patchwork reality assembled from pieces of different worlds after the multiverse collapses.
Spider-Man is one of the key heroes connected to that storyline.
That's why the image of Spider-Man appearing somewhere that looks completely detached from Earth has immediately reminded fans of Battleworld.
TheWrap notes that the scene could potentially be pointing beyond Doomsday and toward Avengers: Secret Wars, where a Battleworld-style setting could become central.
GQ makes a similar connection, suggesting that the mysterious location could represent the kind of patchwork world associated with the comic-book version of Secret Wars.
If Marvel follows even a loose version of that storyline, the post-credits scene could be less about Doomsday itself and more about what happens after Doom wins.
And that distinction matters.
Doctor Doom Could Be the Missing Piece
Doctor Doom is expected to be one of the defining characters of the MCU's next major crossover.
Robert Downey Jr. is playing Doom, and the character's connection to the Fantastic Four gives him an obvious place within the larger story.
But the biggest question is what Doom actually wants.
If the MCU adapts elements of Hickman's Secret Wars, Doom could potentially become the person who attempts to rebuild reality after the multiverse collapses.
That would change the meaning of the Spider-Man scene completely.
Peter may not be traveling toward Doom.
He may be traveling toward the world Doom creates.
And if that world is anything like Battleworld, Spider-Man could find himself surrounded by heroes and villains from realities that should never have existed together.
That would be an enormous escalation from Brand New Day.
What About Venom?
There's another Marvel connection hiding in plain sight.
Venom.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eddie Brock briefly crossed into the MCU before being sent back to his own universe.
But a small piece of the Venom symbiote was left behind in the MCU.
That detail has remained unresolved.
If Marvel wants to connect Spider-Man's next story to the multiverse, the symbiote could become extremely important.
In the comics, Spider-Man's black suit is closely associated with Secret Wars and eventually leads to the creation of Venom.
The MCU has already established its own version of the symbiote mythology.
So a space-based or multiversal Spider-Man storyline could potentially bring that thread back.
TheWrap specifically notes the connection between the Secret Wars comic, Spider-Man's black costume, and the symbiote mythology as another possible route Marvel could explore.
Again, though:
This is a theory, not confirmation.
The Biggest Clue May Be the Absence of Spider-Man From Doomsday
There's a strange contradiction at the heart of all of this.
Marvel has just released a major Spider-Man movie.
The post-credits scene promises that Spider-Man will return.
And yet Tom Holland's Spider-Man has not been prominently associated with the announced Avengers: Doomsday cast.
That leaves Marvel with several possibilities.
Maybe Peter doesn't appear in Doomsday.
Maybe he appears but Marvel is deliberately keeping it secret.
Maybe another Spider-Man appears first.
Or maybe the movie's events separate Peter from Earth-616 entirely, allowing him to return in Secret Wars under completely different circumstances.
The final option would actually make a lot of sense from a marketing perspective.
Marvel could use Brand New Day to tell audiences:
Spider-Man is still part of the multiverse story.
Then save the actual reveal for the next Avengers movie.
So, Does Brand New Day Actually Set Up Avengers: Doomsday?
Not officially.
There is currently no confirmed statement from Marvel saying that the Spider-Man Tracker scene is a direct Avengers: Doomsday setup.
The movie itself doesn't name Doctor Doom.
It doesn't mention an incursion.
It doesn't identify the Spider-Man detected by the tracker.
And it doesn't tell us whether the signal is coming from space, another universe, or something else entirely.
But the scene is clearly designed to raise a question about Spider-Man's future.
And when you place that mystery next to the MCU's current multiverse storyline, Avengers: Doomsday becomes one of the most obvious destinations.
The more conservative interpretation is that Marvel is simply teasing another Spider-Man adventure.
The more ambitious interpretation is that Peter Parker is about to become involved in the biggest multiversal conflict the MCU has ever attempted.
And the wildest interpretation?
That Spider-Man is already being pulled toward Battleworld.
The Most Likely Scenario
If we separate confirmed information from speculation, the safest conclusion is this:
Spider-Man is definitely returning.
That's the one thing Marvel wants audiences to know.
Where he returns, however, is the mystery.
The post-credits scene deliberately avoids showing Peter himself. Instead, Marvel uses a digital tracker to tell us that a Spider-Man has been detected somewhere impossible.
That choice feels intentional.
If the goal were simply to announce another Spider-Man movie, Marvel could have shown Tom Holland.
Instead, they showed a location.
That suggests the location itself may eventually matter.
And that is why the Doomsday and Secret Wars theories are so compelling.
What This Could Mean for Peter Parker's Future
Peter Parker's story has already gone through a massive reset.
After No Way Home, he lost his relationship with MJ, lost Ned as his best friend, and became effectively invisible to the people he cared about most.
Brand New Day begins rebuilding his identity.
The ending suggests that Peter has finally accepted his role as Spider-Man without relying on the people from his old life.
But just as Peter seems to find a new beginning, Marvel gives him another problem.
The multiverse may be coming for him.
If MJ and Ned really begin remembering him, Peter could eventually recover some of the personal life he lost.
At the same time, if the Spider-Man Tracker is pointing toward another universe, his superhero life could become dramatically more complicated.
He may have to choose between rebuilding his life on Earth-616 and becoming part of a multiversal war.
And if Doctor Doom really is preparing to reshape reality, Peter could eventually find himself face-to-face with a villain who looks exactly like the man who once inspired him.
Tony Stark.
The Ending May Be Bigger Than Doomsday
The smartest way to look at the Brand New Day post-credits scene may be to stop asking:
“Is this for Avengers: Doomsday?”
The better question is:
“Is Marvel showing us where Spider-Man goes after the multiverse breaks?”
Because if the MCU follows even a loose version of Secret Wars, the answer could be much bigger than one Avengers movie.
Spider-Man could become one of the characters who survives the collapse of reality and helps navigate whatever comes afterward.
And that would explain why Marvel chose not to reveal too much.
The scene doesn't need to tell us everything.
It only needs to make us ask one question:
Where is Spider-Man?
For now, the honest answer is:
We don't know.
But if the next phase of the MCU really is heading toward incursions, Doctor Doom, and a Battleworld-style reality, that tiny glitch on the Spidey Tracker could eventually turn out to be one of the most important clues in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
And when Spider-Man finally returns, the real question may no longer be whether he's ready for another adventure.
It may be whether Earth-616 is still his home.