A darker episode than the previous ones, in which Peter Parker finds himself navigating a New York that no longer recognises him, and where a new threat is already emerging.
But above all, this is a film that once again showcases the expertise of the VFX artists and special effects supervisors who bring Spider-Man to life as a hero who is both friendly and inspiring, swinging effortlessly through the streets of the Big Apple.
How was this latest feat achieved? Thanks to the talent of the world’s leading special effects studios, as we reveal below.
Experts at the helm
To bring the hero’s stunts to life, director Destin Daniel Cretton (for whom this is his second Marvel film after *Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings*) has surrounded himself with the best talent, starting with Jerome Chen and David Bosco, both veterans of the special effects industry.
The first, who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for *Stuart Little* in 2000, is also one of the founding members of Sony Pictures Imageworks, and was behind the visual revival of the *Spider-Man* franchise. Indeed, it was Chen and his team who worked on both instalments of *The Amazing Spider-Man*, giving Andrew Garfield’s duology a distinctive flair that won over a generation of fans.
Since then, Jerome Chen has also worked on the 2016 *Suicide Squad* , *Jumanji* and *Men in Black*. With *Brand New Day*, he returns to a setting and style he knows inside out, which promises epic chase sequences and breathtaking action scenes that make full use of Spider-Man’s abilities.
The other is David Bosco. A veteran of the Marvel stable, he has worked on numerous films from Phases 1, 2 and beyond of the MCU. From *Guardians of the Galaxy* to *Captain America: Civil War*, *Avengers: Endgame* and, more recently, *Eternals* and the *Hawkeye* and *Ironheart* series, David Bosco is no stranger to the world of superheroes set in urban environments. This is essential when it comes to making Spider-Man soar over the rooftops of New York, whilst maintaining a stunning sense of realism on screen.
“We’re filming at 420 frames per second”
To achieve this unique style, the Brand New Day team went the extra mile, whilst exploring new aesthetic approaches directly inspired by comic books. In a recent featurette, Tom Holland and Destin Daniel Cretton explained how some of the series’ iconic covers had been recreated through the magic of slow motion and special effects.
“We’re filming at 420 frames per second,” explains the filmmaker. “And yet Tom still manages to strike the perfect pose, find the right rhythm and use his body to bring it to life.”
These visual masterpieces are down to the actor-dancer, who performs many of his own stunts, but also to the VFX artists, who refine each of these iconic shots with meticulous care and finesse.
Studios from all corners of the world
With no fewer than seven VFX studios involved in the project, including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Framestore, ILM, RISE, Cantina Creative, Soho VFX and SDFX Studios, artists from Germany, the US, Canada and around the world have worked tirelessly to bring this technical feat to fruition.
Will it live up to fans’ expectations? That, at any rate, is what the thousands of artists involved are hoping, now that post-production on the film has only just been completed and it is set to hit the big screen.
A different era
Nevertheless, some industry experts are still questioning the approach adopted by Hollywood, of which *Brand New Day* is merely a reflection.
According to Anish Moonka, this globalisation is also a cause of lower quality. He backs up this analysis by comparing the latest trailers for the film with this clip from *The Amazing Spider-Man 2*. The fact that this clip is (according to the expert) of a much higher quality than the images from *Brand New Day* revealed so far is no coincidence.
“These images were indeed created by the same person, Jerome Chen, but in a completely different context,” he comments. “In 2014, Chen led a team of 50 VFX artists at Sony Imageworks – the largest VFX team ever assembled by the studio for a single project. They produced around 1,000 of the film’s 1,600 VFX shots, on a budget of $255 million.”
The team filmed on film (rather than digitally), on location in New York, scanned Times Square using 36,000 photos of over 100 billboards, and installed real lighting systems on set to ensure the computer-generated imagery matched reality.”
He notes that this level of involvement is no longer the case. By comparison, *No Way Home* ( the previous instalment) featured 2,500 VFX shots, spread across 12 studios and 3,000 artists, but with a budget of just 200 million dollars.
“The Hollywood union representing visual effects workers has stated that Marvel pays its artists around 20 per cent below the industry average and employs just one person where other studios employ three,” the expert asserts. “Admittedly, *Brand New Day* is due out in four months’ time, and the trailers regularly feature unfinished shots,” he concludes. “But the gap between the 2014 Spider-Man and the 2026 version has nothing to do with a technological setback. The industry is being asked to triple the workload for a paltry budget per shot, whilst its biggest studios are going bankrupt.”
A bitter realisation, but one shared by many artists in an industry that remains under immense pressure.
Could this film mark “a new dawn” for the industry, to paraphrase its subtitle? Whilst the ‘superhero fatigue’ predicted a few years ago doesn’t yet seem to have reached the ears of fans, let’s bet that Hollywood will continue to need talented VFX artists for a long time to come to bring its most epic stories to life. Whether it’s a 3,000-year-old odyssey or a thoroughly contemporary tale.
