Spider-Man: Brand New Day | 2026
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set around 'New York', of course but, since the film was made at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, it was filmed almost entirely in the UK – with New York used for background shots.
I guess it happens to us all. Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is getting older – but he's entering into a new stage of his spider development too, and all alone since MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) have no memory of him ever having existed.
An astonishingly convincing three-block section of 'Downtown Brooklyn' was built on the Pinewood backlot and extended digitally. The time when you could pin down a location by the background detail is long gone (I miss the detective work side of things).
When there's news of a hijacked tank ploughing its way through the Big Apple, Spiderman is naturally off and swinging.
The 'New York' streets through which he follows the remorseless vehicle are those of Central Glasgow, along Bothwell Street between Pitt Street and Hope Street, and on St Vincent Street.
Spidey lands atop the tank on Wilson Street between Brunswick Street and Hutcheson Street (though the cobbles are removed and some of the buildings replaced).
Although most store names are changed, you can see the real Little Tuscany Restaurant on St Vincent Street as the tank veers left into Renfield Street.
Frank Castle – The Punisher – (Jon Bernthal) is also on hand though more a hindrance than a help. In fact, Frank's van manages to run Spidey down on Hutcheson Street between Trongate and Wilson Street.
The tank is headed to the 'Damage Control Westside Branch' which is worrying since old foe Mac Gargan – Scorpion – (Michael Mando) is about to be transferred from there to 'Bellevue Hospital'. The tank is used to spring Gargan but it quickly becomes apparent that there's something more complex going on. The innocent tank driver has been "possessed" by some intangible entity able to hop from body to body (hence the credits listing a whole slew of characters called simply The Inhabited).
The 'Damage Control' facility is Fanum House on Basing View in Basingstoke, Hampshire, the 18-story 1970s Brutalist tower which used to be the headquarters of the Automobile Association (AA). Its destruction on-screen is purely cinematic but hurry if you want to see it – the building is supposedly earmarked for real demolition.
Spidey is off to the 'Damage Control' central HQ to ask Director Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman) about something called "V-Max" which the entity is trying to find.
The HQ is Senate House, the administrative centre of the University of London Union in Bloomsbury, London, though this is the less seen entrance on the southwest side of Russell Square, WC1, rather than the more familiar Malet Street side. This location seems to have moved from the DC Universe to the Marvel Universe. Not so long ago, the same entrance was seen as ‘Central City Research Center' in which Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) works in 2023's The Flash (which coincidentally also featured a chase through the streets of Glasgow posing as the USA).
Senate House has an impressive list of screen credits – having been seen in both Batman Begins (as ‘Gotham Courthouse) and The Dark Knight, as 'Ministry Security' in 2021 Bond movie No Time To Die; as the ‘Russian’ Interpol HQ in Fast And Furious 6; as ‘New York’ in Tony Scott's vampire flick The Hunger; as the CIA HQ in the same director’s Spy Game; as ‘the best restaurant in Moscow’ in Kenneth Branagh’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit; and even as the king's fascist-style bunker in Richard Loncraine's 1930s-set Richard III, with Ian McKellen.
Something strange is also happening to Peter himself as he develops web glands on his wrists and becomes overwhelmed by sensory overload. A TV documentary about the life cycle of the spider gives an ominous hint about the new stage in his arachnid development.
Increasingly out of control, Peter seeks advice from Professor Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) who is teaching Physics at 'Empire State University'. Posing as a student, Peter asks Banner for details of the inhibitor he wears to subdue his Hulk persona.
The University Quad, with its arched colonnade and fountain is Hertfordshire County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, in Hertfordshire. The building was previously seen in George Clooney's 2023 movie The Boys In The Boat, with Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner.
Spooked by the fact that the unseen entity knows Spider-Man's identity and his history, Peter rushes off to protect MJ.
His powers now clumsy and uncontrolled, his progress is unpredictable. He even manages to crash a lavish wedding reception.
Now there's great news if you're a Spidey fan about to tie the knot. This is the ballroom of Heatherden Hall, the stately home at the heart of the estate that became the Pinewood Studios complex.
You can hire the spectacular 19th-century wood-panelled ballroom with its oak-sprung dance floor, crystal chandeliers, a raised stage, and a massive sandstone fireplace, for your own celebration (though you'll need to hire your own Spider-Man to recreate the scene).
Not surprisingly, Heatherden has been a convenient go-to location for plenty of movies over the years, including the Carry On films (remember 'Chayste Place', the school for young ladies in Carry On Camping – that was Heatherden) and the Bond films, both series being based at Pinewood.
Needing a safe space for MJ to hide out as Peter tracks down the disembodied presence, he appeals to Frank at his spacious boathouse on the river overlooking the Manhattan skyline.
Well, not really. The skyline is another digital addition. This is at Chatham Historic Dockyard, Church Lane, Chatham on the River Medway in Kent. The boatyard itself is Turk's Shipyard, restored as a fully operational dry dock and slipway, specialising in boat maintenance services for Dutch barges and riverboats.
The former Royal Navy Dockyard was established in the mid-16th century. Over 414 years, more than 500 ships were built here for the Royal Navy until it closed in 1984. It's now open as a maritime museum.
Chatham Dockyard is another screen favourite, previously seen as the ‘London docks’ and ‘Pentonville Prison’ in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes; as a 'French' town in Tom Hooper's 2013 film of Les Misérables; as 'Hiroshima' in Mr Holmes with Ian McKellen as the ageing sleuth; as the laundry in 2015's Suffragette; and even as the port of ‘Giza’ in the 1999 version of The Mummy.
Since there are no new locations involved, I'm not going to reveal the twists and revelations of the plot, so on to the quiet, green space where the unexpected intrusion of a snatch squad in flashback explains the motivation behind the mysterious being.
Far from 'New York', this is Ravenscourt Park, west of Hammersmith in West London.
New developments find Peter needing to infiltrate an experimental facility on 'Roosevelt Island' in the middle of New York's East River (coincidentally, this is the island reached by the aerial tramway used for the climax of Sam Raimi's original 2002 Spider-Man, with Tobey Maguire).
The towering old structure in which Peter confronts the Hand Gang in a spectacularly choreographed battle looks more like a Victorian house of detention than research lab. That's because it is.
It's Dorchester Prison, 7 North Square, Dorchester, Dorset in the West Country. Closed in 2014, it's been seen in 2023's Luther: The Fallen Sun and TV crime drama The Gold, also in 2023.
Finally accepting the changes happening to him, Peter tends the grave of Aunt May in Brookwood Cemetery, Cemetery Pales, Brookwood, Surrey. The biggest cemetery in the UK, this was also where little Damien attended the funeral of the Ambassador at the end of The Omen (1976). Fans of the horror genre might want to know that buried in Brookwood is Dr Robert Knox, the Edinburgh anatomist who was provided with bodies for dissection by notorious graverobbers-turned-murderers Burke and Hare. The cemetery also contains the ashes of author Dennis Wheatley, whose works include The Devil Rides Out.
Formerly known as the London Necropolis, the cemetery was once serviced by the Necropolis Railway which ran from London's Waterloo Station.
