We’re less than a month away from the premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and the anticipation for the film is only getting higher with every passing day. Being the first live-action Spider-Man movie in five years gives this one a level of hype that few films can organically attain, but the fact it’s picking up from the lingering plot threads of No Way Home while also teeing up the next wave of MCU movies has fans looking at every detail. As a result, fan theories have been flying hard and fast, combined with various rumors and leaks there’s a lot to chew on before we’ve even seen the film.
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Though the identity of Sadie Sink’s character in Spider-Man: Brand New Day may be the most talked about mystery at the center of the film, there’s another one that keen Marvel fans have been pondering. One of the other new additions to the cast is Ahsoka star Eman Esfandi, who has been cast in another mysterious role, MJ’s new boyfriend. Though currently without a name, fans have theorized that perhaps this character is actually one of the many villains set to appear in the movie, but a set photo from director Destin Daniel Cretton may have debunked it.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Boomerang Fan Theory Gets Dumpstered
Ahead of the premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Cretton has been sharing behind-the-scenes photos of the crew to offer a perspective on how many people it takes to make a movie of this size. In one he spotlights costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays, who is shown with the actor playing Boomerang in the film. For a time now the rumor mill has given way to Marvel fans convinced that Esfandi’s character is actually Boomerang in the film, setting up a distinct conflict for Peter at some point in the film.

As noticed by The Direct, though, the actor in the image of Boomerang that Cretton shared doesn’t look at all like Esfandi. It’s certainly possible that the actor in the image is a stunt double, but it could just as easily indicate that this fan theory is officially kaput. Or is it?
Boomerang is just one of several B- and C-list Spider-Man villains set to appear in the film, and it stands to reason that the secrecy around Esfandi’s appearance in the movie at least means he has something bigger to add to the story than just being MJ’s new love interest who has no name. Esfandi’s character secretly being a villain carries massive weight for Spider-Man, as any fight between them would be more than just a fracas when he discovers the truth
On the flipside, for MJ, one assumes she’ll remember Peter’s identity and at the very least make a quip about how she went from dating a superhero to dating a loe-rent villain afterward. As for which villain he could be, Tarantula is also a possibility, or maybe he’s secretly a member of The Hand, a lackey for Tombstone, or someone that we don’t even know about yet
So even though this new release seems to indicate that fan theory has lost some steam, it may not be totally discounted just yet. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to arrive at the end of the month, and hopefully it still has plenty of surprises for fans when it does arrive
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