SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” now playing in theaters.
As “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” director Destin Daniel Cretton delved deep into development, he spent time figuring out which villains would be most exciting to watch in an action sequence. “Brand New Day” has no shortage of villains, from The Scorpion (Michael Mando) and crime boss Tombstone (Marvin Jones) to Jean Grey (Sadie Sink). One particular idea he had was to bring in The Hand, the mystical clan of ninja assassins.
“What better foe to put him up against than a bunch of magic ninjas?” Cretton asks in a clip promoting the Sony/Marvel blockbuster.
The film’s climax comes after Jean Grey is captured and detained by the Department of Damage Control (DODC), the same agency that kidnapped her sister, Sara (Olivia Booth-Ford). Tom Holland’s Spider-Man rushes to rescue Jean and stop her from enacting revenge on William “Bill” Metzger (Tramell Tillman), the director of the Department of Damage Control. There, he encounters The Hand, a group of magic ninjas controlled by the powerful mutant.
When crafting the film’s action sequences, stunt designer Peng Zhang had one directive: keep the fight grounded. (Not literally — this is “Spider-Man” after all — but metaphorically.)
Thus, this particular fight scene combines Spider-Man using what Zhang describes as “alien technology,” while The Hand uses traditional martial arts. And key to this face-off, Zhang explains, is that there are “20 ninjas controlled by one person, so their movement, their fight, and their style needed to be united.” With that idea as his foundation, Zhang built the rest of the fight around that notion.
His first inspiration came from a show he once sat through. “All the dancers played a peacock, and there were 20 of them. Together, they formed the peacock’s wings,” Zhang recalls. “That’s how we started to choreograph this fight.”
The other Zhang leaned into was incorporating the essence of Jean Grey and the character’s comic book ties to the Phoenix.
“I started thinking, ‘Let’s make this fight feel like a bird — a Phoenix,’” Zhang says. “So, the central ninja would represent the head, and the ninjas on each side would represent the wings. We started building the formation around that concept.”
Throughout the fight sequence, the Hand’s choreography was anchored in that idea. “We kept thinking about the shape of the Phoenix and how the ninjas’ movements needed to be unified. It’s not just about them helping each other — they’re united,” Zhang says.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Zhang and Cretton also discussed the fighting style. “We wanted the fight to resonate with all audiences — Spider-Man video game fans, movie fans, animation fans,” Zhang notes. We also wanted martial arts fans to appreciate it, so all the martial arts moves are real. Every ninja move needed to feel authentic, and the choreography had to be very attractive.”
While Zhang didn’t spend too much time prepping, shooting the scene proved to be its own challenge. The scene was shot on location at Dorchester Prison in Dorset, England. “We wanted to do it in the real location, so we spent a lot of time developing the rigging,” Zhang says. But there was a catch. “The riggers couldn’t even see the ninjas — they were on the other side of the jail, with concrete walls and bars in between. We had to install cameras for them to see what they were doing.”
The wirework added another layer of complexity to the sequence. “The wires had to be routed around bars and buildings. The longer the distance, the more delay there was in pulling, which made it a big challenge to shoot. But everyone was so good — the performers, riggers, everyone. We shot that scene for about 12 days or something.”
Another challenge was that Holland performed many of the stunts himself, especially when Spider-Man’s mask is off during that final battle.
“We’re very lucky that Tom had already been trained for the last three movies. His physical background is excellent, so we didn’t have to hold back,” Zhang says. “He gave us the confidence to design complicated sequences for him.”
Zhang points out one “particularly tricky” shot where seven ninjas chase Spider-Man. “He jumps up, and it’s all done in one long take,” Zhang says. “[Tom’s] on a wire, along with the seven ninjas, and if one person messes up, the whole thing falls apart. Luckily, with Tom, he had no problem, and he helped us build the level of the action a lot higher than what we expected.”
