Tom Holland Explains Why ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Wasn’t Filmed in New York
Spider-Man has always felt inseparable from New York City, with the character’s rooftop swings and street-level heroics practically defining the skyline for generations of fans. That connection made it all the more surprising when eagle-eyed viewers started noticing something felt slightly different about the city on screen in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day.’
As it turns out, that instinct wasn’t wrong. Much of Tom Holland’s latest outing as Peter Parker was actually shot thousands of miles away from Manhattan, relying instead on massive sets and stand-in cities to recreate the feel of New York for audiences.
Holland has now explained exactly why the production made that choice, and the answer comes down to simple logistics rather than any creative decision. He said that filming in New York makes it impossible to shut down streets, while London allows studios to pay for exclusive access to a street and effectively own it for the entire day, according to ‘Dish’.
That level of control proved essential for a production of this scale, and the crew leaned heavily on London’s Pinewood Studios to make it work. Holland described the backlot setup as giving the team enormous freedom to explore New York City life without the unpredictability that comes with shooting on real, active streets.
The bulk of the production took shape at Pinewood, where crews constructed an enormous replica of New York on the studio’s back lot. That set gave filmmakers the ability to control every element of a scene, from lighting to background action, without worrying about interruptions from pedestrians or traffic that would be unavoidable on an actual New York City block.
Holland pointed out that filming on real New York streets tends to invite constant disruptions, joking that a crew could be in the middle of an intense scene only for a bystander to walk into frame asking for a photo. London’s more flexible street-closure system eliminated that problem entirely, letting the production treat closed-off blocks as a fully controlled set for as long as needed.
Glasgow, Scotland also played a major role in bringing the illusion to life, standing in for New York during a large-scale action sequence involving an armored car chase. More than fifty roads across the city were closed for at least two weeks to accommodate filming, with yellow taxis, American-style police vehicles, and even a tank rolling through the streets to sell the effect for cast, crew, and onlookers alike.
Whatever concerns fans may have had about swapping New York for the UK, the results speak for themselves at the box office. ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ opened to $360 million domestically, surpassing the previous record held by ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ which opened to $357 million back in 2019.
That kind of financial success suggests the approach worked exactly as intended, blending practical sets, clever location doubling, and visual effects to maintain the illusion of New York without the headaches of filming there directly. Other UK locations were pressed into service as well, including Basingstoke’s former Automobile Association headquarters, which was transformed into a prison for one sequence in the film.
For a franchise so tightly tied to its setting, pulling off that level of deception speaks to how far modern blockbuster filmmaking has come in blending practical production with digital trickery. Whether or not casual audiences noticed the switch, the numbers suggest ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ didn’t lose anything by trading Manhattan’s chaos for London’s control.
Were you surprised that 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' was mostly filmed outside New York?
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