‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Star Jacob Batalon Reveals the Real Story Behind That Peter and Ned Handshake at D23

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘ has spent the past several weeks dominating box office charts, eventually surpassing ‘Avengers: Endgame’ for the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time. Beyond the record-setting numbers, though, one small character moment near the film’s ending has generated just as much conversation among fans as anything the movie’s marketing team could have planned, proving that emotional callbacks can still compete with box office milestones for attention.

That moment comes during the film’s closing scene, when Tom Holland’s Peter Parker reintroduces himself to Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds, whose memories of Peter were wiped away at the end of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ Despite having no conscious recollection of his old best friend, Ned instinctively falls into their signature secret handshake the moment Peter extends his hand, sparking widespread fan debate over whether that memory wipe is starting to unravel.

That lingering mystery gave Batalon plenty to talk about once he took the stage at D23 this weekend, where he shared the story of how the now-iconic handshake actually came to exist in the first place. Far from being carefully choreographed, Batalon has confirmed the gesture was invented on the spot during production of 2017’s ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ when he and Holland were both just 19 years old and had no plan for what their characters’ “best friend handshake” should actually look like.

Batalon has shared the origin story in multiple recent interviews leading up to and following the D23 event. Speaking to PEOPLE, he explained that the handshake was never mapped out ahead of time, saying, “It was definitely something that we made up ourselves, like, two minutes before we had to shoot the scene.” He added that the script simply called for a best friend handshake without any further direction, leaving him and Holland to improvise the entire sequence right before cameras rolled.

Batalon has been careful not to offer a definitive answer about what the handshake’s return actually means for Ned’s memory. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, he acknowledged the ambiguity directly, questioning whether the moment reflects genuine memory recovery or something closer to pure muscle memory triggered simply by Peter re-introducing himself in that exact moment.

That uncertainty hasn’t stopped Batalon from expressing hope about where the story could go from here. He’s described the scene as a meaningful nod regardless of its literal explanation, leaving the door open for future Spider-Man films to explore whether Ned’s memories are beginning to return in some form.

Despite the years that passed between the trilogy’s earlier films and ‘Brand New Day,’ Batalon has said performing the handshake again required surprisingly little effort. He described the movement returning to him almost instantly, comparing the sensation to pure muscle memory kicking in the moment he and Holland needed to recreate it on screen.

That ease makes sense given how deeply ingrained the gesture became during the original trilogy’s production, when Batalon and Holland performed it repeatedly across three films after first inventing it together as teenagers. That long shared history has also translated into a genuine friendship off-screen, with Batalon describing Holland and Zendaya as being like family after years of working together.

With ‘Brand New Day’ still playing in theaters and speculation about Ned’s memories continuing to build, Batalon’s D23 storytelling has only added more context to one of the film’s most talked-about small moments.

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