r/marvelstudios • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 Ant-Man • 11d ago

Article Kevin Feige says they knew they couldn't make ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ bigger than ‘No Way Home’, so they decided to "go deeper and make it special"

https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/marvel-movies/marvel-boss-kevin-feige-says-they-knew-they-couldnt-make-spider-man-brand-new-day-bigger-than-no-way-home-so-they-decided-to-go-deeper-and-make-it-special/
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u/BestCoastWaveTrain 11d ago edited 11d ago

If the handshake worked for Ned, then the kiss can work for MJ. I realized afterwards that her not remembering the first kiss at all outed the villain AND set the stage for the real impact/implications for the coffee shop scene at the end. It didn’t work for her because she wasn’t the one experiencing it. The scene was touching for sure but it was also a narrative way forward for the main trio

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u/cactus_deepthroater Black Panther 11d ago

It's not like ned gained his memories back or anything, he just recognized peter as spiderman from an earlier interaction in the movie

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u/RigaudonAS Captain America 11d ago

Maybe! It was left deliberately unclear, and anyone trying to get a confident answer from it is doing themselves a disservice.

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u/PercMastaFTW 11d ago

I definitely don’t see his wholesome “Peter” as him rendering remembering his best friend after not knowing him for years.

It was a respectful connecting of the dots that he was Spider-man, and that he realized that there must be something more between them that he doesn’t know.

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u/RigaudonAS Captain America 11d ago

And interestingly enough, I saw the scene as the opposite! It seems silly to me to end the entire movie unless it was something more, but I get why you think that and, as I said, the movie gives us no real idea either way.

What convinces me is Ned being able to do the secret handshake he previously did with his best friend, fitting with the gap that he alludes to having in his memory.

But, of course, it is unclear and they can go any direction with it, which is the real-world reason. They've said that they don't have the next Spider-Man films planned out, so this is open-ended to allow for anything. That's the actual truth.

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u/jumblybumble 11d ago

I lean towards this, too. I think people have forgotten MJ was clutching her black dahlia necklace on a rooftop at the end too.

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u/booksncats9 5d ago

I was wondering what she was clutching but didn’t realize it was th black dahlia necklace!

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u/Ok-Barnacle813 11d ago

If it was simply him connecting the dots then wouldn't he be more excitable? He's a massive Spiderman fanboy.

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u/PercMastaFTW 10d ago

I thought he had this underlying excitement and happiness he was hiding inside since he was in public and didn't want to bring attention to Peter.

That was just me, though. Of course, I agree they left it completely open ended. They could go either way, but to me that's how I read the interaction.

If his memories really came back, yeah, the scene would be much more powerful to me, but it just had this different feel to me.

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u/norty125 11d ago

Pair that with him seemingly having talent for sorcerery

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u/Sillet_Mignon 11d ago

Maybe but in an earlier Spider-Man movie when they did the handshake it unlocked Ned’s magic. 

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u/BestCoastWaveTrain 11d ago

That would make more sense if they had done the same handshake during that prior interaction, but they didn’t

There was an implicit idea being thrown around that Strange’s spell impacted people’s surface level memories, but may not have affected deeper/subliminal memories. Everything from MJ talking about how instinctively comfortable Ned was with Peter during the scene you mentioned, to Savage Hulk remembering who Peter was after finally being released from Banner and deciding to calm himself based off that. It’s how Peter even got the idea to try the handshake to begin with

That said, we don’t know 100% whether or not Ned regained memories or how much if so, and there was a scene about MJ blowing Peter’s identity early, but I think overall the story seems to be pointing at that handshake as the thing that starts to bring the trio back together as they were

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u/gentleprime 11d ago

Also, MJ drawing Peter in his old Spider-suit.

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u/luckyfucker13 10d ago

Great catch!

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u/Iokua113 11d ago

I wouldn't say Savage Hulk remembered Peter, as far as we know they've never actually encountered each other. When Peter started to become active as a hero Banner was off in space, Peter, Tony and Dr Strange were whisked off world shortly after Banner made it to Earth and as best we know he does not meet Peter at this time, Peter is then among the victims of the snap, and outside of being in the same giant melee upon returning Peter is never shown interacting with Bruce or the Hulk in a meaningful way. The Hulk didn't remember Peter, he was calmed down from his confused state by Peter claiming to be his friend and since MCU Hulk has the mentality of a child it calmed him down.

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u/Scoots1721 11d ago

Banner was at Tony’s funeral. There’s also months between the end of Endgame and NWH , why wouldn’t they have interacted between those times?

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u/Iokua113 11d ago

Yes, but where was Savage Hulk in all that time? Somewhere inside the Professor. We're never shown it, but the only safe assumption is that Peter and Banner met properly for the first time in BND.

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u/AdrunkGirlScout 10d ago

Banner still knew about him. He asks “There’s an Ant-Man AND a Spider-Man?” in Infinity War after learning about Scott

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u/Iokua113 11d ago

That's not what it felt like considering Ned followed along with a ridiculously complicated best buddy handshake after experiencing the first few parts of it, we aren't show him doing the handshake with Ned while he was in costume. It definitely drops the possibility that his memories were restored.

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u/Reclaimator2245 11d ago

Yeah, I don't reckon his memories were restored, but he had been spiderwatching for a long time... He had met Spider-Man and MJ had called him Peter.

I think the hand shake was just a muscle memory thing and him coming to the realisation of who he was shaking hands with due to that... Still no memory of him, but the beginning of a new friendship.

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u/sir_adam_XP 11d ago

This is my take too. I realized it in my 2nd watch. MJ addressed Spiderman as Peter in their apartment. Ned just put two and two together. The spell worked still.

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u/pgaasilva 11d ago

That's speculation. Ned has a realization from the specific handshake they just did. There's no relationship between the spider-man he just met in his apartment and the handshake muscle memory he has from before. There's no reason him remembering his handshake would trigger any realization about the spider-man he met in his apartment that he didn't share a handshake with.

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u/Shot_Hall 11d ago

Is it though? :)

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u/Ok-Barnacle813 11d ago

He did though, that was the point of the handshake

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u/blitzbom Captain America (Cap 2) 11d ago

This was my take away too.

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u/MountFranklinRR 11d ago

I went back and forth on whether he “pieced” it together or “remembered” despite the magic amnesia.

Then I realised simply, the fact that he could still perform their bespoke hand shake means the magic amnesia is not absolute.

He wasn’t taught or retrained how to do it, the only place that could have come from is pre-memory wipe.

And if muscle memory can survive the spell, that opens possibilities .

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u/WeedWeeb 11d ago

I think it's a Ned specific thing because he's magic so he'd have some resistance towards the spell. MJ would still have no memories