“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has a brand new writer.
Tom Holland’s fourth outing as Spider-Man, initially penned by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, has a revised screenplay by “Challengers” and “Queer” writer Justin Kuritzkes, who will receive a writing credit on the film, TheWrap has learned.
McKenna and Sommers, once credited as the sole scribes for “Brand New Day,” previously penned the other three entires in Holland’s web-slinging, wall-crawling superhero series. The duo got the lone screenplay credits for Jon Watts’ “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” while they shared credit on “Spider-Man: Homecoming” with Watts, Christopher Ford, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.
Rumors of Kuritzkes’ involvement started brewing on last week after Holland made an appearance on the Ringer podcast “Good Hang with Amy Poehler.” There, Holland spoke about an experience he had on the fourth film with co-star and now-wife Zendaya (who will also appear with Holland in “The Odyssey” two weeks before “Brand New Day’s” release) where the two told director Destin Daniel Cretton that they felt a scene wasn’t working.
“He said to the crew, ‘Everyone can go home. We’re going to sit down, and we’re going to rewrite this scene with the writer, Justin, who is such a talent,’” Holland told Poehler. “We came in the next day, we reshot the scene, and I’m so glad we did, because it sings in the movie. It really does.” You can watch the clip below.
Holland’s infamous loose lips strike again. Fans quickly realized that no Justin (no given a last name in the interview) is credited on the “Brand New Day” screenplay, causing them to seek out who this mystery writer is. Given Zendaya’s collaboration with Kurtizkes on Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” (produced by longtime “Spider-Man” shepherd Amy Pascal), an investigation was soon underway, with Instagram users discovering that the screenwriter is friends with the official “Brand New Day” account on Instagram.
This isn’t the first time Kuritzkes, whose only screenwriting credits are the 2024 Guadagnino double feature, penned a superhero script. The writer was previously set to collaborate with Guadagnino on a feature following Sgt. Rock and the Easy Company as part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU.
The World War II-set DC movie has since been indefinitely shelved. Though Gunn said in July 2025 that “Sgt. Rock” isn’t totally dead in the water, he did note that it will be moving forward without Guadagnino.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” releases in theaters on July 31.
