Jacob Batalon says even he isn’t certain what to make of the ambiguous handshake that closes “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the moment fans have spent the past week dissecting for clues about whether his character, Ned Leeds, is beginning to recover memories of his best friend Peter Parker. Batalon told The Hollywood Reporter he has no inside knowledge that settles the debate, calling the scene’s meaning genuinely open to interpretation.
The film ends with Peter, now more willing to reconnect after months of self-imposed isolation, approaching Ned at a corner store and introducing himself by name. Ned, who lost all memory of Peter after Doctor Strange’s spell in “No Way Home,” instinctively falls into the elaborate secret handshake the two friends built over years, prompting speculation that some fragment of their bond survived the erasure.
Batalon offered several competing theories rather than a definitive answer, suggesting the gesture could reflect pure muscle memory disconnected from any real recognition, or nothing more than Ned repeating the name Peter had just given him.
“It seems a little open-ended,” Batalon said, adding that he sees room for a subtle flicker of recognition without ruling out simpler explanations. He said he views the ambiguity as a positive sign for where the story could go next, expressing hope that the moment signals a path back toward the friendship the film spent its runtime keeping apart.
Batalon also lent his modulated voice to the film’s animated post-credits scene, which shows Ned’s homemade Spider-Man tracking app pinging a location off-world. The image has fueled theories connecting the character to an upcoming Avengers installment widely expected to be “Secret Wars,” though Batalon said he has no access to that level of studio planning.
“Brand New Day” has become the highest-grossing domestic opening in box office history, pulling in $360 million in its first weekend and surpassing “Avengers: Endgame.” Director Destin Daniel Cretton has said he built the ending to leave audiences with a feeling of joy while allowing them to draw their own conclusions, and Tom Holland has said he intends to keep playing Peter Parker for as long as Marvel will have him.
