SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Writers Reveal Why Hulk and Jean Grey Were Chosen Over a Spidey Villain

Peter Parker has spent a good chunk of his MCU career looking to someone else for answers. Iron Man took him under his wing, Mysterio and Nick Fury became influential figures in his life, and Doctor Strange was dragged into Peter's spectacular multiversal mess in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

But Spider-Man: Brand New Daychanges the formula. Peter isn't looking for another superhero mentor to tell him what to do. He's finally being forced to figure things out for himself, and that change helped shape the movie's unexpected use of Hulk and Jean Grey.

Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who also worked on the previous MCU Spider-Man movies, explained that breaking Peter's mentor cycle was an important part of moving the character into the next stage of his life.

"We’ve seen that he’s going to these mentors. He’s a younger character. He has people he looks up to, and sometimes it goes well. Sometimes it doesn’t. But let’s not do that anymore.” Sommers explained.

“We want to tell a story about him growing up. Part of growing up is that he needs to start addressing things on his own. He needs to start coming up with answers on his own and not looking to others."

That's a pretty natural direction for Peter after everything he's been through. The ending of No Way Home stripped away his support system and left him in a tiny apartment with a homemade Spider-Man suit and nobody who even remembers who Peter Parker is.

Throwing another older Marvel hero into his life as a teacher would have risked repeating something we've already watched play out several times. Instead, Brand New Day lets Peter interact with the people around him from a much different position.

"It would be fun to see him interact with people as more of an equal and an adult. His relationship with Punisher, even his relationship with [Damage Control member] Metzger or his relationship with Jean DeWolff, these are more mature relationships," Sommers continued.

"As a coworker, as a colleague, as a fellow adult, as opposed to he’s that kid coming to ask the older person for counsel or guidance."

That also explains why Bruce Banner's presence doesn't turn into another mentor situation. A lot of fans assumed Hulk might become the latest veteran Avenger to guide Peter, but McKenna and Sommers had something considerably more destructive in mind.

McKenna said the writers wanted Peter to have a "spider-problem," and Bruce was "perfect for that story, that he would go to learn about that would be Bruce Banner."

Of course, you don't put Hulk into a Spider-Man movie without at least considering what happens when the two of them start throwing punches.

"Hulk would be a great legacy character for our villain to be able to mind control, and then we can get a great Spider-Man-versus-Hulk fight. So that was one of those things that lined up in a way, and we were really, really happy and lucky that Marvel allowed us to use Hulk in the movie because I think he just worked in so many ways."

Spider-Man fighting a mind-controlled Hulk is exactly the kind of comic book insanity that's hard to resist. It also allows Bruce Banner to play an important role without simply becoming Peter's replacement father figure.

Then there's Jean Grey. Her inclusion in Spider-Man: Brand New Day was an interesting and effective choice, particularly because Marvel could have reached into Spider-Man's enormous rogues' gallery for the story's central threat. Instead, the writers found that Jean fit the mind-control story they had been trying to crack.

McKenna explained that mind control had been part of their plans from early on, but they "didn't have the right character for that story." Once Jean entered the equation, things started falling into place.

"Now we can tell a story that with a really great character that can mirror Peter’s in a really great way and we can get to a place," McKenna said. "Because obviously she’s such an important character in the MCU. We will have even more leeway to humanise this character and redeem her by the end."

Rather than building the movie around a traditional Spider-Man villain, McKenna and Sommers saw an opportunity to use Peter Parker to strengthen the connection between Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"We really needed the right character playing that role," McKenna noted. "We were exploring other characters, and it just wasn’t... It was Jean really helped unlock it. She was the missing piece."

It's an interesting choice because Peter's connection to Jean Grey could end up having consequences that reach well beyond Brand New Day.

Spider-Man is now directly connected to the X-Men side of the MCU, and his role in creating an inhibitor chip gives the Department of Damage Control technology that could potentially be adapted to capture and depower mutants.

That's the kind of development that could become very important as Marvel Studios moves deeper into its Mutant Saga. Peter may have solved one problem only to inadvertently hand Damage Control a tool that could create a much bigger one.

Still, after Brand New Day brings Hulk, Jean Grey, Punisher, Damage Control, and the wider MCU into Spider-Man's corner of the universe, it would be great to see Spider-Man 5 dig back into the wall-crawler's own mythology.

Spider-Man has one of the greatest collections of villains in comic book history, and there are still plenty of heavy hitters waiting for their MCU moment.

Brand New Day may have found a compelling reason to look outside that rogues' gallery this time, but hopefully Peter's next adventure gives one of his classic enemies a chance to make his life absolutely miserable.