Spider-Man might not show up in Avengers: Doomsday. And if you are trying to map Marvel’s next cinematic dominoes, that detail matters more than it sounds.

GamesRadar+ points out that Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield's names remain absent from the Avengers: Doomsday cast list. That is especially surprising because Spider-Man: Brand New Day is billed as the last Marvel movie releasing before Doctor Doom arrives. If Spider-Man is not in the cast announcements, then Brand New Day does not seem to be doing the obvious job: directly seeding the next Avengers film.

So what is it doing instead? The article argues it is likely aiming at Avengers: Secret Wars. The key clue is not just what we see in marketing so far, but what we do not. Brand New Day’s public positioning is heavily leaning into “grounded, New York-set” vibes, including cameos from MCU heavy-hitters like Punisher and Hulk, and the possible introduction of a new-look Jean Grey in Sadie Sink. Meanwhile, Doomsday is described as packed with essentially every major Marvel corner the franchise can reach: classic Avengers like Steve Rogers and Thor; the New Avengers like Yelena and US Agent; Alternate Avengers like Captain America and Shang-Chi; Fox-era X-Men including Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier and Ian McKellen’s Magneto; Wakandans; and the recently introduced Fantastic Four.

That scale matters because it explains why Peter Parker may not be a priority for Doomsday, at least on paper. The Russo brothers are credited in the article as returning directors who “couldn’t fit Peter Parker into Doomsday.” But there is a more process-level reason too: the release order itself used to be different. GamesRadar+ notes Brand New Day and Doomsday were originally going to be released in the other order, with Doomsday coming earlier. That original schedule would have naturally led Brand New Day into Avengers: Secret Wars instead. In other words, the movie that might have felt like it was meant to connect to Doomsday could have been designed to connect to Secret Wars all along.

And the article makes a broader point with a parallel: the pandemic-era release switch from Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness to Spider-Man: No Way Home. In that case, the writers said No Way Home had a major impact on Doctor Strange’s role. The implication here is contrast. If Brand New Day and Doomsday were intrinsically tied, changing the release order should have forced a more visible headache. But “there has been barely a whisper” that the switch caused fallout in either film. That supports the idea that Brand New Day may be designed to be “almost entirely self-contained,” with Peter Parker dealing with The Hand and the chaos of his own body morphing.

Even the rumor ecosystem seems to understand the gap. GamesRadar+ says the online rumor mill has “primarily avoided claiming” Holland’s character will play a major role in Doomsday. That does not mean Spider-Man is impossible, though. The article notes Holland was recently pictured filming scenes in London, but it remains unclear whether those are for Brand New Day or Doomsday. It also suggests the timing would make it more likely to be a “Doosmday post-credits scene,” while stressing that this is speculation. It then introduces another rumor that would make the timing make sense: that Peter Parker will be central to Avengers: Secret Wars.

If you zoom out, that sets up a very specific kind of brand strategy inside Marvel’s storytelling machine. The article connects Secret Wars to the 2015 comic run, where the story happens on Battleworld, a planet that combines versions of Earth across the multiverse, with Doom acting as emperor. There is also mention of unconfirmed concept art from a few years back that “seemingly confirmed” the movie would go in this direction. If that is the template, then it becomes plausible why Brand New Day would focus on memory and identity rather than plugging straight into Doomsday.

GamesRadar+ brings memory into the conversation by tying it to the MCU’s Spider-Man arc. In No Way Home, Doctor Strange makes the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Brand New Day, per the article, continues the theme as Parker struggles being Spider-Man without his friends, MJ and Ned, by his side. So the rumor being floated is that Doom might wipe each Avenger’s memory to make them serve on Battleworld. If Spider-Man’s story has already established that memory is the difference between “saving the day” and “being erased,” then Brand New Day could be quietly preparing a mechanism for Parker to retain memories if the wipe hits everyone else.

The article lists speculative ways that could happen: a remnant of symbiote left behind in the No Way Home post-credits from Venom that retains memories and gives them to Parker; or a “maybe Jean Grey” element, with Sadie Sink’s new-look Jean Grey possibly protecting him from a memory wipe. It also keeps the other side on the table: perhaps Spider-Man will not appear in Doomsday or Secret Wars at all. That is the point. For now, Brand New Day is positioned less like a direct setup for Doom and more like a preloading of themes, especially the stuff Marvel already knows audiences latch onto for Spider-Man: identity, belonging, and what happens when the universe decides you never existed.

Finally, there is a concrete timing note for anyone tracking release cadence across regions. Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters in the UK on July 29 and the US on July 31. That gives just enough runway for the next question to start beating at the door: if Peter Parker is being held for Secret Wars, what exactly is Marvel choosing not to spend on Doomsday?