Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has teased Tom Holland’s transformation into a true Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as he discussed his upcoming clash with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher. Tom Holland’s popular version of Peter Parker is set to make superhero history as the first Spider-Man to star in four “solo” movies, rather than leaving after a trilogy.

Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige discussed Spider-Man: Brand New Day at the Fantastic Four roundtable (with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan in attendance). There, he promised that this will be the true Spider-Man at last.

“I think there’s a promise at the end of No Way Home that for as sad as it is that Peter is forgotten by everyone in his life. We are seeing for the first time in the Tom Holland Spider-Man stories, him being a proper Spider-Man, him being by himself dedicated to saving the city beyond and dealing with, for lack of a better term, street level crime as opposed to world ending events that he faced when working with the other characters. So when you do that, you say, okay, who are the other street level characters that we’ve never seen him interact with? And of course I know The Punisher started in a Spider-Man comic and that great cover, I don’t want to say too much, but I won’t say too much. [Destin Daniel Cretton] is doing an amazing job right now in that movie that starts shooting very soon and he’s got eight or nine comic covers up on his wall in his art department that he is bringing to life in this movie.”

The MCU’s Spider-Man Has Only Really Been Introduced So Far

It’s Time For Spider-Man To Shine

At first glance, Feige’s comment seems more than a little bemusing. Holland’s Spider-Man has literally appeared in six movies so far (headlining three, and appearing in team-ups like Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War). But he’s right; Spider-Man: No Way Home rewrote all this into an MCU origin story.

It did this in a shocking way, with Aunt May’s death serving a crucial Spider-Man role; she was the one who uttered the immortal words of “power and responsibility,” defining Peter Parker’s life. This, more than anything else, is the promise Feige refers to; those words conclude Spider-Man’s origin, setting up everything to come.

Even more exciting, though, is the prospect of Spider-Man clashing with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher. As Feige observes, the Punisher was introduced as a Spider-Man antagonist, hunting down Spider-Man because he blamed the webhead for Gwen Stacy’s death. He’ll presumably serve a similar antagonistic role in the MCU, too.

Spider-Man Stands Alone, Not As A Member Of The Avengers

He’s Out Of Tony Stark’s Shadow

There’s a sense in which No Way Home‘s ending was necessary to reposition Spider-Man in the MCU. Captain America: Civil War had plunged Peter Parker into the Avengers’ world, and he had since coexisted alongside the Avengers, always in the shadows of more experienced heroes like Tony Stark and Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange’s spell erased all memory of Peter Parker, creating a sense of distance between Spider-Man and the Avengers. That means we’re pulling Spider-Man out of the more cosmic stories for a moment, instead telling a much more grounded tale. Spider-Man: Brand New Day sounds all the more promising because of this.