Spider-Man is missing from the new Avengers: Marvel explains why

Marvel already gave the reason Spider-Man isn’t part of the new Avengers lineup in the MCU. Doctor Strange’s last spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home wiped Peter Parker from everyone’s memory, the Avengers included.

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That reset gave Marvel and Sony a clean way to cut Peter loose from the Tony Stark-heavy version of his MCU story and move him back to a more classic Spider-Man setup: on his own, anonymous again, and not an obvious match for Earth’s biggest team.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day leans even harder into that direction by keeping Peter in New York and focused on street-level crime, not world-ending cosmic threats. Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, and Tom Holland have all said this stretch of the story is built around something more personal, and Holland put it pretty plainly when he said Peter is “exactly where he belongs” protecting the city.

For anyone keeping up with Spider-Man in the MCU, the takeaway is pretty clear. He’s still expected to show up in solo movies and crossover projects, even if a major role in Avengers: Doomsday doesn’t look likely right now. At the same time, the Secret Wars rumors, Sadie Sink’s reported casting as Jean Grey, and reports that Spider-Man: Brand New Day could pull in $360 million domestic and $932 million worldwide all point to the same idea: Marvel and Sony seem to be holding Spider-Man back for a bigger return later.

You can see that reset play out from Spider-Man: No Way Home into Spider-Man: Brand New Day.