Naruto Makes Surprise Big-Screen Appearance Ahead Of Live-Action Adaptation

Published Aug 4, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. Warning! Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a rare example of a massively hyped movie that actually lives up to the hype. Tom Holland gives his best Peter Parker performance yet, the plot feels just like a six-issue run of Amazing Spider-Man comics, and Sadie Sink’s deeply sympathetic portrayal of Jean Grey has me excited about the MCU’s future for the first time in years. Above all, the success of Brand New Day is down to director Destin Daniel Cretton. Under Cretton’s direction, Brand New Day is every bit the dazzling action spectacle that Shang-Chi was, and every bit the tragicomic character study that Wonder Man was. The movie is perfectly paced; it runs for two-and-a-half hours, and yet it doesn’t feel a second too long. It has a zippy rhythm, but it’s not just wall-to-wall action; Cretton takes every opportunity to slow down for some human drama. It’s a terrific movie — easily the best Spider-Man film of Holland’s tenure and maybe the greatest live-action Spider-Man movie ever made (but I’ll wait for the recency bias to wear off before I employ such hyperbole) — and it’s solidified Cretton as one of the most interesting and reliable filmmakers working today. I can’t wait to see what he does next — not just in the MCU, but in his own passion projects. Cretton already teased one such passion project with a tantalizing Easter egg in Brand New Day. Spider-Man: Brand New Day Has A Major Naruto Easter Egg Cretton is developing a few projects right now. He’s still working on the long-gestating Shang-Chi sequel. He’s supposedly executive-producing a film adaptation of In the Garden of Tulips. Until recently, he was working on a second season of Wonder Man, which was inexplicably unrenewed by Disney+ right on the heels of its creator’s latest Marvel success. The most mouth-watering project on Cretton’s docket is his live-action adaptation of Naruto. Cretton has been hired by Lionsgate to direct, co-write, and co-produce a live-action movie based on the original Naruto manga, and everything he’s said in interviews (and everything we’ve seen in his previous blockbuster filmmaking) suggests he’s the perfect guy for the job. Cretton included a nod to Naruto in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. There’s a Naruto poster hanging in Ned’s apartment, and it features prominently on-screen a good two or three times. It’s hanging right behind Ned’s workstation, so whenever he’s working on the Spidey Tracker app or doing his guy-in-the-chair business or FaceTiming with Black Widow, we see Naruto proudly displayed in the background. Cretton clearly wanted us to notice it. Naruto Fans Know They're In Good Hands After Brand New Day ©2026 Sony Pictures Entertainment I was already excited for Cretton’s take on Naruto. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is jam-packed with jaw-dropping action sequences that already feel like live-action Naruto fights. The fight on the bus, the fight at the fight club, the fight on the scaffolding, and the final battle all had the dazzling spectacle and eye-popping colors that a live-action Naruto film would need. But after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, I’m even more sure that Cretton will do an amazing job with Naruto. Naruto is as much a coming-of-age story as it is a superhero actioner — the martial arts mayhem is just a way in to explore the universal emotions of growing up and trying to make something of yourself — and the same could be said of Brand New Day. Spidey’s latest big-screen adventure is all about Peter’s messy transition from naive adolescence to jaded, battle-hardened adulthood. It’s a riveting action-adventure spectacle, but it’s also a genuinely engaging emotional journey, and that’s exactly what a Naruto movie needs to be. Will Destin Daniel Cretton Direct Spider-Man 5 After Naruto? After the runaway success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it’s clear that Spidey is even more popular than ever, and Tom Holland is the world’s favorite webslinger. So, Sony and Marvel Studios will surely waste no time greenlighting and developing the next one. Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige have been clear that Brand New Day is intended as the first chapter of a new trilogy, so they’re hoping to keep Holland around for at least Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6, and maybe even more after that. But will Cretton be back in the director’s chair? Jon Watts stuck around for the entire Home trilogy, but he didn’t do anything but Spider-Man movies for half a decade. Cretton, on the other hand, has his fingers in a few other MCU pies, and he could have all his eggs in the Naruto basket for the foreseeable future. So, Marvel will either have to wait for Cretton to finish Naruto before making Spider-Man 5, or find another director to make Spider-Man 5. If it was up to me, I’d say wait for Cretton. He proved with Brand New Day that he understands the character of Spider-Man inside and out, and he clearly has a good rapport with Holland. Sony might be pushing to find another director to take the wheel, but Marvel tends to have a good instinct for these things. When a movie like Brand New Day works, Feige knows it’s because the director did something right. When Marvel has faith in a director, they’ll wait for them to be free. After Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi directed Jojo Rabbit before coming back to do Thor: Love and Thunder. Ryan Coogler did Sinners in between the second and third Black Panther movies. James Gunn directed The Suicide Squad between Guardians of the Galaxy Vols. 2 and 3 (although he’d been fired by Disney when he took the job, so Disney didn’t have much of a choice but to wait). I really hope Cretton goes down the Watts route and carries this trilogy to the finish line. Even if it means we only get a new Spidey movie every five years, if Cretton is in the director’s chair, it’ll be worth the wait. Spider-Man: Brand New Day had an extremely high bar to clear after No Way Home, and Cretton made it look easy. He made the third Spider-Man’s fourth solo movie feel fresh and original and new. It’s the best Marvel movie in years. Destin Daniel Cretton might be the best thing to happen to the MCU since Robert Downey Jr.