Destin Daniel Cretton Sets the Record Straight on Jackie Chan’s Stunt Team Working on ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’

Behind-the-scenes stories about blockbuster productions have a funny way of taking on a life of their own once they start circulating online, especially when a beloved industry legend’s name gets attached to the mix. What starts as an exciting rumor can spread so widely that it eventually gets treated as established fact, even when the full picture is more complicated.

That’s exactly the situation surrounding one particular claim that’s been making the rounds since ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘ first began production, and the film’s own director has now stepped in to correct the narrative directly.

Destin Daniel Cretton addressed the persistent rumor that Jackie Chan’s stunt team worked on ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ during a new interview, revealing that the story circulating online is actually false. Speaking with TheWrap, Cretton clarified that while Chan did visit the film’s set, his stunt team was not the one responsible for the movie’s fight choreography.

According to Cretton, the film’s stunts were instead handled by Peng Zhang, who studied under the late stunt coordinator Brad Allan. “Jackie Chan’s stunt team did not work on the movie,” Cretton told TheWrap, directly addressing the confusion. “Chan did visit the set, but the stunts were handled by Peng Zhang, who studied under the late, great Brad Allan.”

Allan’s connection to both Chan and Cretton runs deep. A longtime disciple of Chan’s own stunt lineage, Allan previously served as second unit director on ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,’ which happened to be his final film before his death. Zhang, who worked alongside Allan on that earlier Marvel project, carried that same training and choreography style into his elevated role on ‘Brand New Day.’

The confusion appears to have started after Chan himself spoke about visiting the London set during production, telling Hong Kong outlet HK01 that his stunt team was “busy filming Spider-Man” and that he served as their action director. That comment, combined with Chan’s well-documented history collaborating with Cretton on ‘Shang-Chi,’ quickly snowballed into widespread reporting suggesting his team had directly choreographed the film’s fight sequences.

Cretton’s clarification arrives amid a broader wave of press appearances tied to the film’s record-breaking box office run, during which the director has also addressed other swirling rumors, including speculation about test screening reactions and the recent cancellation of Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ series. That willingness to directly correct the record suggests Cretton is aiming to keep the narrative around his record-setting film as accurate as possible amid the flood of attention it’s received.

Regardless of the confusion around Chan’s specific involvement, the film’s action sequences have still drawn widespread praise for their grounded, practical style, with Zhang’s Hong Kong-influenced choreography helping deliver some of the most acclaimed fight scenes in the franchise’s history. That creative lineage, even without Chan’s direct stunt team attached, still carries forward the same martial arts tradition that made ‘Shang-Chi”s action sequences so memorable.

With ‘Brand New Day’ continuing to dominate global box office charts, Cretton’s willingness to publicly correct misinformation about the production offers a rare, candid look behind the curtain of one of the year’s biggest cinematic events.

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