Lionel Messi has appeared in the latest Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer, which sees the World Cup superstar swinging through Manhattan alongside Tom Holland.
The short trailer, released today as the World Cup’s knockout stage continues, sees one of the world’s most recognizable sporting icons join the Spider-Man: Brand New Day hype train.
As the trailer begins, Peter Parker is sat in a café chatting away on the phone when he spots someone extremely famous walk in. It’s Argentine football (not soccer!) legend Lionel Messi! After tripping over himself in excitement, Peter tells Messi he recognizes him. “Si,” says Messi. But why are you here, Messi?
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Cast and Characters: Who’s Confirmed for the MCU Sequel?
“Spider-Man,” Messi simply says, holding up his phone. The device can be seen displaying the Spidey Tracker tool developed by Peter’s former friend Ned and released publicly earlier this month, which fans can use to follow the superhero’s location. I suppose this makes sense — Messi is in the right country, after all.
Peter rushes off to get changed, quickly reappearing in his Spidey suit to satisfy Messi in his hunt for the hero. The trailer concludes with Peter then asking Messi if he likes heights (“Como?” Messi replies) and then the pair majestically swinging together through Manhattan while Messi yells like he’s voicing Super Mario.
With a month to go until Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s July 31 release in theaters, the summer blockbuster’s promotional campaign is now in full swing. While this trailer features footage that almost certainly won’t be included in the final film, we recently got a proper trailer that officially revealed the Hulk’s presence in the movie and further teased Sadie Sink’s mysterious role that looks increasingly to be an MCU version of Jean Grey.
Amid press and fan appearances, we’ve also had Holland trying his hardest not to spoil details of the MCU’s future — with mixed success. Holland flat-out revealed that one person still knew that Peter Parker was Spider-Man despite Doctor Strange’s spell. Asked if he was in Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars, Holland declined to answer though strongly hinted he was.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social






