Destin Daniel Cretton On Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Shang-Chi 2, Avengers 5 & Marvel

When Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters on July 31, filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton will have released three MCU projects in the last five years. He has another, a sequel to 2021's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, on the way: "We are in active development right now." Before ultimately taking on the new Spidey movie instead, he was tapped to direct what later became Avengers: Doomsday. At this point, it's safe to say that Cretton is one of Marvel's guys.

If you'd told him a few years ago that's where he was headed, though, it might've come as a surprise.

In 2021, he told EW that before the opportunity to make Shang-Chi came up, he'd never really been interested in making a superhero movie. (When he first met with Marvel about that job, he apparently said the same to Kevin Feige.) And his time in this particular world of filmmaking has hardly been easy. Shang-Chi's production weathered the COVID-19 shutdown. Wonder Man, the Disney+ series Cretton co-created with Andrew Guest, was halted by the dual writers and actors strikes in 2023. They've both admitted it almost didn't survive.

And yet, he keeps coming back. In a sit-down interview with ScreenRant for this profile, he explained why.

"I mean, it's really the people," Cretton said. "I fell in love with the people who work at Marvel. From Kevin on down, everybody that I work with there is just incredibly supportive. They're all movie lovers, and so passionate about what they are doing."

And contrary to what many people believe, I find incredible freedom working there. I find that they've been so supportive of me finding my way into these big stories and big canvases through ideas that are very personal to me. They've kind of helped me realize these big movies on a grand scale, but allowed me to do it the way that I connect to. It's kind of a dream to work for a company that does that.

Why Marvel would place that trust in him is no mystery. Despite his initial disinterest, he's pretty good at this superhero thing.

The Simple Secret To Shang-Chi & Wonder Man Is Destin Daniel Cretton's Guiding Light

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings overcame an uncertain theatrical landscape to finish as the second highest-grossing movie of 2021; it still holds the Labor Day weekend record for domestic opening by more than double the next challenger. Judging by its Rotten Tomatoes (92%) and Metacritic (71) scores, it's also the second best-reviewed film of MCU Phases 4, 5, and 6 so far, just one RT percentage point behind Spider-Man: No Way Home. Wonder Man is likewise one of the best-received Marvel TV shows, and went from being at risk of pre-release cancellation to scoring a season 2 pickup by Disney+.

These two projects also stand out for curiously different reasons. Shang-Chi is the only Marvel movie of the 2020s dedicated to introducing a single hero, and it undeniably draws on the storytelling formula of past solo-films. But it executes. The martial arts-driven action is thrilling. The characters become people you care about and root for. At the time, it felt like the studio going back to, and delivering on, the thing that made them successful in the first place. It was a welcome reminder of why the formula exists.

Wonder Man, meanwhile, is unlike any project the MCU has ever done. It doesn't really adhere to the typical superhero storybeats. Its stakes are small, and its focus narrow. The show is committed to letting its characters drive the narrative, weaving from drama into comedy and back again as they please. And because there's no obligation to leave this specific little corner of the world that the Avengers wrought, the writers just keep digging into the details of what it's like to live in it. Wonder Man made good what I saw as the initial promise of MCU TV, before everything needed to be as big as the movies.

Cretton is one of many directors that Marvel courted from the world of indie and studio dramas, as well as one of the most successful of them. He credits what he learned making movies such as Short Term 12 and Just Mercy with preparing him to cut through the noise of blockbuster filmmaking, and "focus on what is important in these stories."

"When you get to a big superhero movie, especially now, I think the thing that is most important is the characters and their personal journey that they're on, and making sure that those emotions are relevant and relatable to everyday, normal people who are going to go watch these movies," Cretton said. "The only dial that I have to measure that is my own self, and making sure that I personally connect with the inner journeys of these characters.

"I personally am not in it to do these giant movies just because they're big, or just because they're Spider-Man, or just because they're Shang-Chi. I fall in love with each of these movies the moment that I find the thing about that story that connects with me deeply and personally."

Though there were many factors in play, as he acknowledges, that guiding light may be why Cretton isn't directing the next Avengers movie. After being announced in the role in July 2022, back when the film was called The Kang Dynasty, reports of him having stepped away from the project first surfaced in November 2023. That's notably one month before Kang the Conqueror actor Jonathan Majors was found guilty of harassment and reckless assault in the third degree, prompting his exit from the role and a significant overhaul of the Multiverse Saga's story arc.

Could that real-world controversy and its on-screen fallout have played a part in Cretton's decision to step away? Certainly. But even in an answer that politely declines to get into the details, it sounds like he just couldn't find that spark in whatever Marvel was planning.

"Avengers 5 didn't work out for many reasons," Cretton said, after a pause. "I had a conversation with Kevin at that time about, you know, the reasons why I didn't feel like the right fit for the story that they were chasing.

"And then, in that same room, he mentioned Spidey to me."

If You're Taking Over Spider-Man, It Helps To Have Tom Holland In Your Corner

Photography by Andrew Lipovsky

Look back at the history of Sony Spider-Man movies, and you'll find that Brand New Day breaks a pretty interesting streak. Sam Raimi directed all three of the Tobey Maguire movies in the 2000s. Andrew Garfield's two films were both by Marc Webb. And though Tom Holland's Webslinger has appeared in multiple MCU projects, Jon Watts had stewardship of his three previous solo titles.

When Maguire and Garfield appeared in Watts' No Way Home, it appears some kind of seal was broken. Now, Cretton becomes the first filmmaker to take over a Spider-Man story already in progress.

"It was definitely a bit worrisome when I first came in, stepping into a pre-established team who have been doing this for a long time," he admitted. "Tom is clearly an expert on his Spider-Man, and, you know, I was the outsider coming into this family. Not only Tom, but the producers and the studios, they've been doing these movies for so long."

Thankfully, this outsider was met with "a surprising amount of collaborative spirit," from his star especially. In Tom Holland, Cretton found not only a willing performer, but a savvy creative voice.

I found Tom to have amazing ideas, but he's a true team player, and he understands the writing process. He really understands the filmmaking process. Sometimes it's scary to bring an actor into the inner workings of what you're doing, because they can then see how [many] mistakes you make to get to a good idea, and how many bad ideas it takes to get to something cool. But having Tom in the writers room, I quickly realized, like, he just gets it. He understands that the whole thing is a process, and he was a joy to have.

When we asked if there was a specific scene that Cretton could trace back to one of Holland's suggestions, he needed no time at all to think of several. "Gosh, so many things." Unfortunately, though, "most of the things I'm thinking of would be spoilers." And the studio is taking every precaution possible to keep a lid on Spider-Man: Brave New World's surprises. (SR was only shown the first 30 minutes of the movie for this profile.)

Still, he did his best to give us a peek at their dynamic behind-the-scenes:

I find many actors are like this… many times, they think of ideas in scenes. It's the same way that my brain thinks. So, when Tom pitches an idea, it's not just an idea like, 'Oh, it'd be cool to have this person in the movie' or whatever. He pitches the beginning, middle, and end of a scene that's something he knows he can play, something that creates a little character arc for him.

So, there is a scene towards the end of this movie – I can't really say what it is – but it's an incredibly moving scene that has a lot of humor in it. I remember when Tom pitched that scene in the writers room, and the way he painted the picture, I could just see it so clearly. So, then we were able to take that idea, and write it into the script, and that's what ended up in the movie.

Through Inevitable Challenges, Brand New Day Holds Onto What Makes Spider-Man Special

Photography by Andrew Lipovsky

Compared to what Destin Daniel Cretton's dealt with so far in his Marvel Studios career, Spider-Man: Brand New Day must've felt like a breeze. No pandemic, no strikes, no problem, right?

Unfortunately, that's not really how it works. To make a movie at this scale is to always be juggling something. "I feel rushed in every project," Cretton laughs. "It's always a rush."

Case in point: Brand New Day's production start date was pushed by six months to accommodate Tom Holland's role in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. As nice as it was to have the extra time to prep, that scheduling shift only alleviated some pressures by creating new ones.

"I mean, it's always a blessing when you get more time, because we were definitely crunched before that push," he told us. However, "our production pushed, but our release date did not push. So, we had more time to prep, but we had less time to finish the movie. Our release date was always July 31st.

"The crunch, you know, remained the same. But we had an incredible team to go through this journey with, and I don't think we could have pulled it off with any other team."

That team included not just an array of talented filmmakers in every department, but also the people at the very top: producer Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman, and, of course, Kevin Feige. "Oh yeah… everybody was involved. This is an all-hands-on-deck movie."

Photography by Andrew Lipovsky

Cretton expanded a bit on Feige's role, which, despite recent reports that the Marvel Studios head had his full attention on the two upcoming Avengers movies, he insists was significant.

Feige is a busy guy, but he is also one of the most passionate heads of a studio that I've ever worked with. And Spidey is his guy, you know? And so, when Kevin is in the writers room with us, or when he's on set, the kid in him ignites, and he is full of ideas. He's just a joy to have around. So yes, he didn't – We're not on the back burner when it comes to Kevin Feige.

Speaking of those two Avengers movies, sometimes the larger forces of studio scheduling do break in your favor. Avengers: Doomsday, which is set to release on December 18, was previously dated for May 1, 2026. For Cretton, not having Brand New Day set between the next two Avengers movies was a relief – and a gift.

"It opened us up to be able to do certain things that we wouldn't have been able to do if this movie was sandwiched between those two movies. So yeah, I was very happy when we were able to allow this movie to stand on its own, without having to think of all the logic it would take to connect with those."

One of those freedoms was to remain true to the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home. That film's emotional finale saw Peter Parker save his reality by allowing everyone to forget he ever existed, including his beloved MJ. That seems like the kind of thing the larger Marvel franchise might be quick to undo, à la Tony Stark supposedly moving on from his suits in Iron Man 3. But from what ScreenRant has seen so far, Brand New Day is committed to grappling with the consequences of Doctor Strange's spell.

Photography by Andrew Lipovsky

That fidelity was important to Cretton. In fact, he said, "those consequences were the reason why I signed on to the movie."

I thought it was a really relatable place to start with Peter Parker. I mean, we're looking out at this city right here [gestures to the New York City skyline], and this is the place where Peter Parker is surrounded by millions of people who adore Spider-Man, that he is vowing to protect. But he's throwing himself so deeply into his work, and shutting out his humanity, that he can sit on the edge of a building in the middle of this city and feel entirely alone.

And I do think right now, maybe more than ever in history, people can relate to that feeling of being surrounded by stuff, people, stimuli, and still [having] moments where they feel very lonely. That exploration of that stage in his life, and being able to watch Peter relearn the importance of connecting with other human beings – that was the sole reason why I wanted to do this movie.

So, carrying those repercussions of the last movie… To me, the greatest gift that Jon Watts gave was that setup.

If Cretton managed to hold onto that feeling, through all the chaos and constraints of putting a big-budget superhero movie together, Spider-Man: Brand New Day could be something special. Based on his Marvel output so far, we have no reason to doubt him.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day releases in theaters nationwide on Friday, July 31.

Release Date

July 31, 2026

Runtime

145 Minutes

Director

Destin Daniel Cretton