[Filling the Space is a flexible column where our writers could vent, deconstruct, and work their way around the emotions brought on by TV, films, books, music, and key moments in pop culture. This isn’t meant to be analytical, but instead, a way for us to explore our feelings.]
TV or movies that aren’t marketed as romance don’t exactly owe us a happy ending. But in the words of the legendary Captain Raymond Holt, “everything is garbage.” We deserve happiness and good things in the fiction we consume, and a lot of times, I think about that in terms of what characters deserve. And a character like Peter Parker deserves the world.
With a four-year wait since No Way Home, it’s hard to imagine anything but some sort of hopeful ending (or at least a hopeful beginning if there’s more), but it’s almost mandatory at this point. I often think about what Dr. Strange says when he recognizes that, despite the things they’ve been through, Peter is just a kid. These should be some of the best years of his life, yet he’s spending them drowning in grief and loneliness. He’s fighting for the city while no one even knows his name, and damn does that hurt.
I know that the MCU doesn’t exactly do happy endings or hopeful moments often. It’s unclear if we’ll even get more Spider-Man movies after this, plus everything with Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. But hi, yes, I don’t know, time is ticking. Everything is exhausting, and at this point, I need Peter Parker’s happiness more than I need my own. If nothing else, by the time the credits roll in Brand New Day, I need at least MJ and Ned to remember him. I need some sort of confirmation that everything’s going to be okay; otherwise, what’s the point?
This sounds dramatic and silly, but if Stranger Things taught me anything, it’s that kids need a happy ending and some sort of normalcy. They need hope in a world that’s too dark. Peter’s life in a nutshell is one bad thing after another, but the way that the MCU has amplified so much of it is almost worse. And ultimately, just having something good to lean back can restore some of the light that’s been lost from the MCU. We get it, it’s all dark because the world is dark, but where’s the hope and whimsy? Where’s the joy and love and peace, even if it’s for five seconds before the next big bad steps into the picture? I don’t think I’m asking for too much here, honestly.
Related Content: Everything We Know About Spider-Man: Brand New Day
It’s easier to give us sad, heartbreaking stories. Happy endings require a lot more bravery and vulnerability than people want to believe, so I really, really hope Brand New Day takes the braver route.