Spider-Man: Brand New Day star Tom Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton opened up about taking inspiration from Sony’s Spider-Man games and how they translated elements of their combat into the newest Spidey movie.
IGN’s Jeffrey Vega got the chance to speak with Holland on the red carpet at Brand New Day’s premier on Monday, July 27, where he asked what exactly about the games inspired his creative process for the film.
For Holland, it was all about the finishing moves, which are special flourishes that let Spidey take down enemies with style. Having played the games, he wanted to incorporate these into the film — and he wasn’t the only one on set itching to do it, either.
“A lot of the action,” inspired him, he told us. “A lot of the finishing moves. I was actually playing the game last night. I couldn’t sleep last night, I was so excited about today. I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do, and I was like, ‘I’ll just throw the game on and have some fun.’
“For me, a lot of those finishing moves, a lot of our stuff was influenced by that stuff.”
Additionally, Destin Daniel Cretton revealed that many of the stunt performers on Brand New Day were fans of the Spider-Man games, even bringing screenshots of Peter Parker’s moves into the writers’ room to see what they could bring from the digital world into the real one.
“A lot of the action designers and stunt people we had were huge gamers,” he explained. “They were able to experience things in those games that made them excited, and they would just screengrab the moves they really liked and bring them into the writers’ room and show it to me. And then we’d be like, ‘Yeah, that’s sick. Let’s try to figure out how to do that for real.’”
This isn't the first time Holland has spoken out about his love for Insomniac's Spider-Man games; back in June, he told IGN Benelux that both he and wife Zendaya are big fans, though Zendaya joked that she wouldn't let her hubby help her out on more difficult parts and bossfights as she wanted to experience it all on her own.
Speaking of the Spider-Man games, Sony itself is celebrating Brand New Day in style, adding Tom Holland’s suit from the movie into Spider-Man 2 in honor of the occasion. That’s not all; players will also get a second suit inspired by Peter Parker’s look in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, Sony's second collaboration with the fighting game after Marvel’s Wolverine was also confirmed to get a Tokon-inspired suit and vice versa.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters on Friday, July 31. The fourth Spidey movie is already projected to have one of the biggest opening weekends of 2026, with Deadline estimating it’ll rake in at least $180 - $190 million at the domestic box office, while Box Office Pro predicts a substantially more optimistic $230 – $250 million.
IGN’s Tom Jorgensen gave the movie a 7 out of 10, saying it “effectively refocuses on the most reliable pillars of the webslinger: swinging around NYC saving the day and looking cool while doing so," while admitting that, at points, "Peter’s inner turmoil ...sometimes leaves the 'brand new day' of the title feeling like Groundhog Day."
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
Jeffrey Vega is the Lead Social Host/Producer at IGN and is probably feeding his neopets right now. You can follow him on Twitter @jeffreyvega, Instagram, and IGN's TikTok.
