Spider-Man: Brand New Day Scrapped Kraven, a Talking Cat, and a British Peter Parker in Wild Story Search

Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s writers have revealed a treasure trove of scrapped story ideas — including an imposter Spider-Man, a talking cat, and a British-accented Peter Parker — as they explain the years-long search that finally produced the film’s metamorphosis-driven plot. Writer Chris McKenna, speaking to The Bulwark, detailed the discarded concepts behind Sony and Marvel’s blockbuster, which was conceived as a smaller-scale sequel to Spider-Man: No Way Home but ultimately became the highest-grossing film in North American box office history. The revelation comes as the movie celebrates its commercial triumph, with Jean Grey only being locked in as the film’s villain in September 2024, less than a year before production began.

McKenna and his co-writer Erik Summers have penned every Tom Holland Spider-Man film, and the duo faced a peculiar creative obstacle: avoiding characters Sony had already committed to for its own Spider-Man Universe spinoffs. The writers describe a frustrating “trench war” with Marvel’s own plans, where classic villains kept getting claimed by rival projects. As McKenna explained, the team would break a story for weeks, only to discover a chosen villain had already been used elsewhere.

A Metamorphosis Story That Kept Coming Back

Despite the detours, the film’s core concept remained remarkably consistent. The idea of Peter Parker undergoing a personal transformation — resisting change while forced through one he cannot control — was McKenna’s original pitch, abandoned and then resurrected after the writers explored alternative directions.

“We went down some different roads,” McKenna revealed. “We came back to — this was one of our original ideas, [the idea of] metamorphosis — that we went away from and then came back to it. And people were like ‘woah this is great, where’d this come from?’ Well, we pitched it to you a year and a half ago before we went down that other road! And I’m glad, maybe we had to do that to get back to the metamorphosis story, which I thought was the most simple, potent, cool idea. Someone who’s resisting change going through one he couldn’t control. Particularly with the MCU [version of] the character, as we never saw him get his powers.”

Chris McKenna, Spider-Man: Brand New Day writer

The writers were also careful not to undo the emotional payoff of No Way Home, where Zendaya’s MJ reveals her identity to Peter. In one early version, she simply “figured it out” from the start — a version that was ultimately scrapped.

Kraven, Chameleon, and the Villain Trench War

The most dramatic obstacle was deciding who the film’s shape-shifting villain would be. Sony’s push to release standalone Spider-Man Universe films — including Madame Web, Morbius, and Kraven — complicated the writers’ search for a classic antagonist they had not yet used.

“We would break a story for two weeks, and we had Spot as our villain in No Way Home, and then we’d find out ‘oh, we’ve just read the new outline for Across the Spider-Verse, and Spot’s in it, so, can’t have that.’ And then we’d go ‘at least we have Kraven.’ We were told Sony would never make a Kraven standalone movie. We had fun ways to get into the Kraven character, turning New York into a Home Alone trap for Spider-Man, booby traps everywhere, a big star as an iconic Kraven who’s just hunting down Peter Parker, even as a tertiary villain but someone who’s stalking him the whole movie. And then it was like a joke: ‘Sony is making a standalone Kraven movie.’ It was like, ‘you gotta be kidding me.'”

Chris McKenna, Spider-Man: Brand New Day writer

McKenna also explored Chameleon, Marvel’s classic shapeshifter, before realizing the character’s half-brother Sergei was already appearing in the Kraven film. The telepathy route then led the writers into mutant territory — a dangerous space as Disney took control of the X-Men following its acquisition of Fox.

From Talking Cat to British Accent

Beyond the villain search, McKenna shared several wildly different opening concepts. One would have launched with Peter as a “badass hero in South East Asia, taking on South East Asian gangs,” living on a boat and manufacturing his own web fluid before discovering an imposter has copyrighted Spider-Man’s brand and hired Matt Murdock to fight it.

Another idea leaned into the surreal: Peter falling ill and hallucinating a message from his bodega’s cat, who would talk and instruct him to hunt down the Spider-Totems. He would then wake in a hospital, where the vision is revealed as a dream brought on by appendicitis — only to be evicted for unpaid rent and move in with two neighbours who turn out to be the villains Overkill and Boomerang.

Perhaps the most character-driven concept had Peter adopting a British accent to disguise his voice when meeting MJ, introducing himself as Ben Reilly, a cloned version of Spider-Man from the comics. McKenna noted the writers had to keep such ideas vague to avoid interfering with Marvel’s future plans, though he confirmed the metamorphosis theme — Peter putting on a persona he doesn’t truly believe — carried through into the final film.

Looking Ahead

Despite the turbulent development, Brand New Day has delivered a landmark commercial success. As of this month, the film has overtaken Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the highest-grossing movie of all time in North America, with a global box office total now standing at $2.47 billion. Whether it will claim the title of highest-grossing film of 2026 overall remains to be seen, with Avengers: Doomsday set to compete in December.

Notably, one scene survived the script’s evolution from its earliest incarnations: Peter meeting Yelena in a bathhouse, a moment McKenna knew would be fun to include. For fans revisiting the film, these revelations offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the creative process — and a reminder of how much the final product differs from the ideas that were once on the table.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social.