Spider-Man: Brand New Day New Promo Confirms Major Netflix Defenderverse Connection

A new promo for Spider-Man: Brand New Day set up a big connection to Netflix's Defenderverse (the Defenders Saga). For years, the Defenders Saga's place in the greater MCU was questioned, only getting a true resolution and becoming truly canon with the main story in early 2024. 

A new YouTube promo for Spider-Man: Brand New Day directly referenced the Hand from Marvel's Defenders Saga on Netflix. The ad shows Jacob Batalon's Ned Leeds telling the public about the official Spidey Tracker, which he creates and uses to help the public keep track of Spider-Man as he works to relearn the hero's secret identity. 

At the 0:57 mark, as Ned shows a graphic of Spider-Man's villains, a slide pops up for The Hand, featuring the shot of Spider-Man leaping towards red-suited ninjas. The picture's caption also teased the group being "back in New York," indicating they were not active for some time before this movie:

"Can someone tell me what NINJAS are doing back in New York? The all-red outfits do go kinda hard but feels like it'd be hard to sneak around in."

While this group was theorized to be The Hand when it was first shown in the original Brand New Day trailer, this clip sets that identity in stone. This will be The Hand's first official appearance in the MCU since it served as the main villain in 2017's The Defenders on Netflix; the villainous organization also appeared in multiple seasons of Daredevil and Iron Fist.

This group was introduced in Daredevil Season 1 as a mysterious faction led by Nobu Yoshioka alongside Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin. They then became the main antagonists in Season 2, which shows them exploring a prophesied weapon called the Black Sky, a mantle eventually taken by Elodie Yung's Elekrtra. 

At the end of The Defenders, Elodie Yung's Elektra declared herself the new leader of The Hand after the Defenders team had gone toe-to-toe with them across the eight-episode season. This led to an all-out brawl between the Defenders and The Hand, with the Defenders coming out on top after a massive building collapsed on top of the villainous group's leaders.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day's first trailer showed the Hand returning to action, as the ninjas donned bright red robes and came hard after Peter Parker. As Parker's eyes turn black (one of numerous physical changes he will endure in this movie), he breaks one of the ninja's swords with his webs, and the final shot shows him jumping forward at half a dozen robed enemies.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be the MCU's fourth solo Spider-Man movie. Starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker alongside a host of MCU regulars, it will pit the now anonymous web-slinger against a host of new antagonists as he works up the courage to reveal his identity to his closest friends.

The Hand's Potential Role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day

It appears that The Hand will not have been active in New York City for years following the end of The Defenders. However, this movie looks to bring that group back into the spotlight in a big way, complete with new robes and a likely renewed quest for power in a New York City that may be vulnerable to attack.

Thus far, The Hand has no tangible connection to Spider-Man in the MCU, even though it was closely tied to Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin in the Netflix shows (as D'Onofrio waits for his chance to take on Spider-Man on the big screen). However, given the group's original goal of gaining immortality, this unit is sure to cause plenty of mayhem through ancient, potentially supernatural means to achieve it.

While details on The Hand's role in the story remain unclear, the group will be among only a few antagonists in Brand New Day. This will give Peter Parker some of his most difficult challenges to date, even after dealing with the threat of the multiverse falling apart in his last solo film.