Spider-Man: Brand New Day has grossed over $2 billion worldwide, making it one of the biggest movies of all time. But some audiences are steering clear. Pro-Palestinian activists are boycotting the film due to the participation of Avi Arad, the founder of Marvel Studios who serves as a key producer on each of the Spider-Man films.
I wanted to write about the boycott not to convince Marvel diehards to renounce one of their favorite characters, but to instead explain the controversy and illustrate how the Israel-Palestine conflict is a complicated web (obligatory Spider-Man joke) that touches almost every aspect of our culture. Please enjoy this explainer on the subject.
Hasn’t Spider-Man Been Out For, Like, Three Weeks Already?
Yes. The boycott has been going on for over a month, but I only caught wind of it last week and wasn’t able to write about it immediately. I have a day job. Gimme a break.
Who Is Leading The Boycott?
While the boycott itself is a global effort, it’s spearheaded by activists with the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon. A group in Jordan is also boycotting the film and urging others to do the same.
Why Are People Boycotting Brand New Day?
Mostly because of the participation of one man, Avi Arad, the Marvel producer whose name is attached to nearly every on-screen incarnation of Blade, Spider-Man, and the X-Men, from films to TV shows. Jon Bernthal, who plays the Punisher in the new film, also platformed an Israeli Defense Forces soldier on his podcast. By drawing attention to these pro-Israel individuals associated with the film, activists aren’t trying to get people to swear off the superhero — rather, they’re hoping to challenge what they see as the cultural normalization of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
When we let powerful people produce or star in some of the highest-grossing movies ever made without once acknowledging or challenging their Zionist views, it normalizes Zionism, normalizes the genocide, and normalizes the suffering of Palestinian people. Silence is complicity. It also establishes a double standard — just because someone produces comic book movies does not mean their political views are beyond scrutiny.
If these activists were to actually watch the movie, I’m sure they would have other reasons to support the boycott. I haven’t seen the film, but apparently Spider-Man has mass surveillance technology in this one and it’s played off as a cute joke.
Okay, So Who Is Avi Arad And Why Should We Boycott Him?
Avi Arad is the former chief of Marvel Studios, and his fingerprints are all over Marvel’s films, especially the Spider-Man movies. Arad proudly served in the Israeli military from 1965 to 1968 and was involved in and wounded during the Six-Day War in 1967. Arad wrote a letter to Senator Chuck Schumer in 2024 in which he said, among other things, “I proudly served in the Israeli military.” The letter was published in its entirety by TheWrap.
In the letter, Arad lambasts Schumer for his criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. “It’s not your war. It is not your country. And it is not you who is at risk,” Arad wrote. “It is not your place or business to attempt to dictate to another democratic country what its electorate should do or how they should vote.”
In the letter, Arad parrots familiar Israeli state talking points. Hate crimes against Jews have increased exponentially, he says, and Schumer’s inadequate support for Israel is making it worse. Israel isn’t the villain here, he writes — Hamas started it. Hamas, he says, wants to eliminate Jews from the face of the Earth, and Israel is merely defending itself. He goes further, stating that Israel doesn’t want to defend itself, but it’s forced to. This is the same logic that led to the Six-Day War in the first place, during which Israel displaced 413,000 Palestinians and killed over 11,400 Arabs. “The only peace is to learn to live together,” Arad wrote. “I know you [Senator Chuck Schumer] know it, so do the Palestinians. They want to be with us, they do not want Hamas. No one wants peace more than the Israelis.”
These points are incredibly easy to disprove with even a few minutes of research — yes, the peacekeeping force in the region is apparently the same colonizing force that regularly abducts children, bombs journalists, and kills Palestinians on Palestinian soil whenever they please without repercussions.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is not being boycotted because Avi Arad is Israeli, but because he is a puppet of the Israeli state, someone who’s proud to call himself Israeli and supports Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinians. And that should be sufficient reason to boycott.
Wait, Doesn’t The Film Star A Bunch Of Actors Who Are Pro-Palestine?
Yes! This is particularly fascinating, because we simply lack the variables needed to figure out this part of the problem. Spider-Man: Brand New Day stars Mark Ruffalo, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Sadie Sink, and Liza Colón-Zayas. All of them, to some degree, support Palestine and have used their platforms to call for a ceasefire, promote aid organizations, or otherwise express solidarity with Palestine. Some rightwing individuals online have pointed to this seeming conflict of interest as a way to prove that the left is so anti-Israel that it’s turning on its own members. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The Mark Ruffalo out with the Avi Arad.
This argument, however, is pretty much irrelevant. We know that Marvel makes its actors sign multi-picture deals, meaning that, in most cases, the contracts for Pugh, Ruffalo, Zendaya, and Sink are figured out far before specific projects — and specific producers — are decided. It’s entirely possible that Ruffalo, for example, was forced to do this film for contractual reasons. It’s also possible that Ruffalo wanted to work on the project for artistic reasons — maybe he wanted to work with Tom Holland or director Destin Daniel Cretton. Or maybe he weighed the pros and cons and decided that starring in a big movie, regardless of its producer, meant that more fans would be exposed to his politics and would perhaps begin to think twice about the genocide Israel is waging in the Middle East. Pugh, for one, used her star power to help raise $2 million for Palestine at the “Together for Palestine” benefit concert in London in September 2025.
Marvel is the biggest name in town. For rising stars like Sadie Sink or Liza Colón-Zayas, accepting a role in the MCU could propel them to superstardom, like it did for Tom Holland or Brie Larson. It’s the kind of offer most actors dream of. We also need to consider that every film is the product of the tireless work of many craftspeople, which makes it nearly impossible to completely parse the politics of any particular group when looking at individual films.
Without the full picture, we can’t definitively say one way or another why these actors appear in Brand New Day, whether they had any say in their involvement, and whether they’re even aware of Avi Arad’s Zionist politics. That’s another reason why the boycott is so important: It does not matter whether Brand New Day makes $2 or $2 billion. At the very least, the goal of the boycott is to raise awareness of the film’s ties to Israel and to teach people about the complex web of Israeli support in Hollywood.
Isn’t This Consistent With The MCU’s Questionable Politics?
Absolutely. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is hardly the first MCU film with shaky politics. For example, the Iron Man series, Captain America and its sequel, and Captain Marvel were produced thanks to significant help from the U.S. military, which has a history of lending resources to productions that heavily feature the armed forces. The productions rented military equipment, including weaponry and vehicles; shot on military bases; hired off-duty military personnel as extras; allowed Pentagon officials to provide feedback and advice; and gave the Pentagon final approval on the shooting scripts.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is also not the first MCU project to draw ire from pro-Palestine activists. Captain America: Brave New World drew heated debate for its inclusion of the franchise’s first Israeli superhero, Sabra (Shira Haas), a Mossad agent in the comics whose Israeli identity was mostly scrubbed for her film debut. She’s unambiguously portrayed as one of the good guys, working hand in hand with the new Captain America (Anthony Mackie) to thwart the villains. (Incidentally, Avi Arad talked to The Times of Israel about Sabra back in 2012, saying that he would love to put her in a film but would probably face pushback from the studio. “Listen, no one would like to say ‘screw ’em!’ more than me,” he said. “But the studios, they’d probably make me pair her up with a Palestinian superhero.” You can practically Spidey-sense the hate coming off this man.)
What Can I Do?
If you want to support the boycott, simply don’t pay to see the film. It doesn’t mean that you should never see Spider-Man: Brand New Day — merely that you should vote with your wallet by choosing not to support the film in the theater or with a rental once it hits streaming. Wait until it’s available for free.
With the boycott, pro-Palestinian activists are saying enough is enough. They’re tired — we’re tired — of seeing so many powerful people get away with defending Israeli war crimes with no pushback whatsoever. Boycotting this massive tentpole is a tiny raindrop in a sea of resistance, but what is a sea if not a multitude of raindrops?
If you’re reading this column and would like to share your perspectives on the work I cover, or if you’re Palestinian and want to open a dialogue, my email is listed below. This column is also available to read on my Substack, which you can subscribe to here.
Contact me at clement@filminquiry.com
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