Category: Blog

“Language is not merely a set of unrelated sounds, clauses, rules, and meanings; it is a totally coherent system bound to context and behavior.” — Kenneth L. Pike

The web has accents. So should our design systems.

Design Systems as Living Languages

Design systems aren’t component libraries—they’re living languages. Tokens are phonemes, components are words, patterns are phrases, layouts are sentences. The conversations we build with users become the stories our products tell.

But here’s what we’ve forgotten: the more fluently a language is spoken, the more accents it can support without losing meaning. English in Scotland differs from English in Sydney, yet both are unmistakably English. The language adapts to context while preserving core meaning. This couldn’t be more obvious to me, a Brazilian Portuguese speaker, who learned English with an American accent, and lives in Sydney.

Our design systems must work the same way. Rigid adherence to visual rules creates brittle systems that break under contextual pressure. Fluent systems bend without breaking.

Consistency becomes a prison

The promise of design systems was simple: consistent components would accelerate development and unify experiences. But as systems matured and products grew more complex, that promise has become a prison. Teams file “exception” requests by the hundreds. Products launch with workarounds instead of system components. Designers spend more time defending consistency than solving user problems.

Our design systems must learn to speak dialects.

A design dialect is a systematic adaptation of a design system that maintains core principles while developing new patterns for specific contexts. Unlike one-off customizations or brand themes, dialects preserve the system’s essential grammar while expanding its vocabulary to serve different users, environments, or constraints.

When Perfect Consistency Fails

At Booking.com, I learned this lesson the hard way. We A/B-tested everything—color, copy, button shapes, even logo colors. As a professional with a graphic design education and experience building brand style guides, I found this shocking. While everyone fell in love with Airbnb’s pristine design system, Booking grew into a giant without ever considering visual consistency.  

The chaos taught me something profound: consistency isn’t ROI; solved problems are.

At Shopify. Polaris () was our crown jewel—a mature design language perfect for merchants on laptops. As a product team, we were expected to adopt Polaris as-is. Then my fulfillment team hit an “Oh, Ship!” moment, as we faced the challenge of building an app for warehouse pickers using our interface on shared, battered Android scanners in dim aisles, wearing thick gloves, scanning dozens of items per minute, many with limited levels of English understanding.

Task completion with standard Polaris: 0%.

Every component that worked beautifully for merchants failed completely for pickers. White backgrounds created glare. 44px tap targets were invisible to gloved fingers. Sentence-case labels took too long to parse. Multi-step flows confused non-native speakers.

We faced a choice: abandon Polaris entirely, or teach it to speak warehouse.

The Birth of a Dialect

We chose evolution over revolution. Working within Polaris’s core principles—clarity, efficiency, consistency—we developed what we now call a design dialect:

Constraint	Fluent Move	Rationale
Glare & low light	Dark surfaces + light text	Reduce glare on low-DPI screens
Gloves & haste	90px tap targets (~2cm)	Accommodate thick gloves
Multilingual	Single-task screens, plain language	Reduce cognitive load

Result: Task completion jumped from 0% to 100%. Onboarding time dropped from three weeks to one shift.

This wasn’t customization or theming—this was a dialect: a systematic adaptation that maintained Polaris’s core grammar while developing new vocabulary for a specific context. Polaris hadn’t failed; it had learned to speak warehouse.

The Flexibility Framework

At Atlassian, working on the Jira platform—itself a system within the larger Atlassian system—I pushed for formalizing this insight. With dozens of products sharing a design language across different codebases, we needed systematic flexibility so we built directly into our ways of working. The old model—exception requests and special approvals—was failing at scale.

We developed the Flexibility Framework to help designers define how flexible they wanted their components to be:

Tier	Action	Ownership
Consistent	Adopt unchanged	Platform locks design + code
Opinionated	Adapt within bounds	Platform provides smart defaults, products customize
Flexible	Extend freely	Platform defines behavior, products own presentation

During a navigation redesign, we tiered every element. Logo and global search stayed Consistent. Breadcrumbs and contextual actions became Flexible. Product teams could immediately see where innovation was welcome and where consistency mattered.

The Decision Ladder

Flexibility needs boundaries. We created a simple ladder for evaluating when rules should bend:

Good: Ship with existing system components. Fast, consistent, proven.

Better: Stretch a component slightly. Document the change. Contribute improvements back to the system for all to use.

Best: Prototype the ideal experience first. If user testing validates the benefit, update the system to support it.

The key question: “Which option lets users succeed fastest?”

Rules are tools, not relics.

Unity Beats Uniformity

Gmail, Drive, and Maps are unmistakably Google—yet each speaks with its own accent. They achieve unity through shared principles, not cloned components. One extra week of debate over button color costs roughly $30K in engineer time.

Unity is a brand outcome; fluency is a user outcome. When the two clash, side with the user.

Governance Without Gates

How do you maintain coherence while enabling dialects? Treat your system like a living vocabulary:

Document every deviation – e.g., dialects/warehouse.md with before/after screenshots and rationale.

Promote shared patterns – when three teams adopt a dialect independently, review it for core inclusion.

Deprecate with context – retire old idioms via flags and migration notes, never a big-bang purge.

A living dictionary scales better than a frozen rulebook.

Start Small: Your First Dialect

Ready to introduce dialects? Start with one broken experience:

This week: Find one user flow where perfect consistency blocks task completion. Could be mobile users struggling with desktop-sized components, or accessibility needs your standard patterns don’t address.

Document the context: What makes standard patterns fail here? Environmental constraints? User capabilities? Task urgency?

Design one systematic change: Focus on behavior over aesthetics. If gloves are the problem, bigger targets aren’t “”breaking the system””—they’re serving the user. Earn the variations and make them intentional.

Test and measure: Does the change improve task completion? Time to productivity? User satisfaction?

Show the savings: If that dialect frees even half a sprint, fluency has paid for itself.

Beyond the Component Library

We’re not managing design systems anymore—we’re cultivating design languages. Languages that grow with their speakers. Languages that develop accents without losing meaning. Languages that serve human needs over aesthetic ideals.

The warehouse workers who went from 0% to 100% task completion didn’t care that our buttons broke the style guide. They cared that the buttons finally worked.

Your users feel the same way. Give your system permission to speak their language.

Picture this: You’re in a meeting room at your tech company, and two people are having what looks like the same conversation about the same design problem. One is talking about whether the team has the right skills to tackle it. The other is diving deep into whether the solution actually solves the user’s problem. Same room, same problem, completely different lenses.

This is the beautiful, sometimes messy reality of having both a Design Manager and a Lead Designer on the same team. And if you’re wondering how to make this work without creating confusion, overlap, or the dreaded “too many cooks” scenario, you’re asking the right question.

The traditional answer has been to draw clean lines on an org chart. The Design Manager handles people, the Lead Designer handles craft. Problem solved, right? Except clean org charts are fantasy. In reality, both roles care deeply about team health, design quality, and shipping great work. 

The magic happens when you embrace the overlap instead of fighting it—when you start thinking of your design org as a design organism.

The Anatomy of a Healthy Design Team

Here’s what I’ve learned from years of being on both sides of this equation: think of your design team as a living organism. The Design Manager tends to the mind (the psychological safety, the career growth, the team dynamics). The Lead Designer tends to the body (the craft skills, the design standards, the hands-on work that ships to users).

But just like mind and body aren’t completely separate systems, so, too, do these roles overlap in important ways. You can’t have a healthy person without both working in harmony. The trick is knowing where those overlaps are and how to navigate them gracefully.

When we look at how healthy teams actually function, three critical systems emerge. Each requires both roles to work together, but with one taking primary responsibility for keeping that system strong.

The Nervous System: People & Psychology

Primary caretaker: Design Manager
Supporting role: Lead Designer

The nervous system is all about signals, feedback, and psychological safety. When this system is healthy, information flows freely, people feel safe to take risks, and the team can adapt quickly to new challenges.

The Design Manager is the primary caretaker here. They’re monitoring the team’s psychological pulse, ensuring feedback loops are healthy, and creating the conditions for people to grow. They’re hosting career conversations, managing workload, and making sure no one burns out.

But the Lead Designer plays a crucial supporting role. They’re providing sensory input about craft development needs, spotting when someone’s design skills are stagnating, and helping identify growth opportunities that the Design Manager might miss.

Design Manager tends to:

• Career conversations and growth planning
• Team psychological safety and dynamics
• Workload management and resource allocation
• Performance reviews and feedback systems
• Creating learning opportunities

Lead Designer supports by:

• Providing craft-specific feedback on team member development
• Identifying design skill gaps and growth opportunities
• Offering design mentorship and guidance
• Signaling when team members are ready for more complex challenges

The Muscular System: Craft & Execution

Primary caretaker: Lead Designer
Supporting role: Design Manager

The muscular system is about strength, coordination, and skill development. When this system is healthy, the team can execute complex design work with precision, maintain consistent quality, and adapt their craft to new challenges.

The Lead Designer is the primary caretaker here. They’re setting design standards, providing craft coaching, and ensuring that shipping work meets the quality bar. They’re the ones who can tell you if a design decision is sound or if we’re solving the right problem.

But the Design Manager plays a crucial supporting role. They’re ensuring the team has the resources and support to do their best craft work, like proper nutrition and recovery time for an athlete.

Lead Designer tends to:

• Definition of design standards and system usage
• Feedback on what design work meets the standard
• Experience direction for the product
• Design decisions and product-wide alignment
• Innovation and craft advancement

Design Manager supports by:

• Ensuring design standards are understood and adopted across the team
• Confirming experience direction is being followed
• Supporting practices and systems that scale without bottlenecking
• Facilitating design alignment across teams
• Providing resources and removing obstacles to great craft work

The Circulatory System: Strategy & Flow

Shared caretakers: Both Design Manager and Lead Designer

The circulatory system is about how information, decisions, and energy flow through the team. When this system is healthy, strategic direction is clear, priorities are aligned, and the team can respond quickly to new opportunities or challenges.

This is where true partnership happens. Both roles are responsible for keeping the circulation strong, but they’re bringing different perspectives to the table.

Lead Designer contributes:

• User needs are met by the product
• Overall product quality and experience
• Strategic design initiatives
• Research-based user needs for each initiative

Design Manager contributes:

• Communication to team and stakeholders
• Stakeholder management and alignment
• Cross-functional team accountability
• Strategic business initiatives

Both collaborate on:

• Co-creation of strategy with leadership
• Team goals and prioritization approach
• Organizational structure decisions
• Success measures and frameworks

Keeping the Organism Healthy

The key to making this partnership sing is understanding that all three systems need to work together. A team with great craft skills but poor psychological safety will burn out. A team with great culture but weak craft execution will ship mediocre work. A team with both but poor strategic circulation will work hard on the wrong things.

Be Explicit About Which System You’re Tending

When you’re in a meeting about a design problem, it helps to acknowledge which system you’re primarily focused on. “I’m thinking about this from a team capacity perspective” (nervous system) or “I’m looking at this through the lens of user needs” (muscular system) gives everyone context for your input.

This isn’t about staying in your lane. It’s about being transparent as to which lens you’re using, so the other person knows how to best add their perspective.

Create Healthy Feedback Loops

The most successful partnerships I’ve seen establish clear feedback loops between the systems:

Nervous system signals to muscular system: “The team is struggling with confidence in their design skills” → Lead Designer provides more craft coaching and clearer standards.

Muscular system signals to nervous system: “The team’s craft skills are advancing faster than their project complexity” → Design Manager finds more challenging growth opportunities.

Both systems signal to circulatory system: “We’re seeing patterns in team health and craft development that suggest we need to adjust our strategic priorities.”

Handle Handoffs Gracefully

The most critical moments in this partnership are when something moves from one system to another. This might be when a design standard (muscular system) needs to be rolled out across the team (nervous system), or when a strategic initiative (circulatory system) needs specific craft execution (muscular system).

Make these transitions explicit. “I’ve defined the new component standards. Can you help me think through how to get the team up to speed?” or “We’ve agreed on this strategic direction. I’m going to focus on the specific user experience approach from here.”

Stay Curious, Not Territorial

The Design Manager who never thinks about craft, or the Lead Designer who never considers team dynamics, is like a doctor who only looks at one body system. Great design leadership requires both people to care about the whole organism, even when they’re not the primary caretaker.

This means asking questions rather than making assumptions. “What do you think about the team’s craft development in this area?” or “How do you see this impacting team morale and workload?” keeps both perspectives active in every decision.

When the Organism Gets Sick

Even with clear roles, this partnership can go sideways. Here are the most common failure modes I’ve seen:

System Isolation

The Design Manager focuses only on the nervous system and ignores craft development. The Lead Designer focuses only on the muscular system and ignores team dynamics. Both people retreat to their comfort zones and stop collaborating.

The symptoms: Team members get mixed messages, work quality suffers, morale drops.

The treatment: Reconnect around shared outcomes. What are you both trying to achieve? Usually it’s great design work that ships on time from a healthy team. Figure out how both systems serve that goal.

Poor Circulation

Strategic direction is unclear, priorities keep shifting, and neither role is taking responsibility for keeping information flowing.

The symptoms: Team members are confused about priorities, work gets duplicated or dropped, deadlines are missed.

The treatment: Explicitly assign responsibility for circulation. Who’s communicating what to whom? How often? What’s the feedback loop?

Autoimmune Response

One person feels threatened by the other’s expertise. The Design Manager thinks the Lead Designer is undermining their authority. The Lead Designer thinks the Design Manager doesn’t understand craft.

The symptoms: Defensive behavior, territorial disputes, team members caught in the middle.

The treatment: Remember that you’re both caretakers of the same organism. When one system fails, the whole team suffers. When both systems are healthy, the team thrives.

The Payoff

Yes, this model requires more communication. Yes, it requires both people to be secure enough to share responsibility for team health. But the payoff is worth it: better decisions, stronger teams, and design work that’s both excellent and sustainable.

When both roles are healthy and working well together, you get the best of both worlds: deep craft expertise and strong people leadership. When one person is out sick, on vacation, or overwhelmed, the other can help maintain the team’s health. When a decision requires both the people perspective and the craft perspective, you’ve got both right there in the room.

Most importantly, the framework scales. As your team grows, you can apply the same system thinking to new challenges. Need to launch a design system? Lead Designer tends to the muscular system (standards and implementation), Design Manager tends to the nervous system (team adoption and change management), and both tend to circulation (communication and stakeholder alignment).

The Bottom Line

The relationship between a Design Manager and Lead Designer isn’t about dividing territories. It’s about multiplying impact. When both roles understand they’re tending to different aspects of the same healthy organism, magic happens.

The mind and body work together. The team gets both the strategic thinking and the craft excellence they need. And most importantly, the work that ships to users benefits from both perspectives.

So the next time you’re in that meeting room, wondering why two people are talking about the same problem from different angles, remember: you’re watching shared leadership in action. And if it’s working well, both the mind and body of your design team are getting stronger.

From the outside it can be hard to know just how long an actor worked before making it big, but for many that answer is absolutely staggering. Countless performers came dangerously close to walking away from acting entirely before landing the one role that changed everything. Some were working odd jobs just to survive, others had endured dozens of failed auditions, and a few had already decided to pursue completely different careers. Then one opportunity arrived at exactly the right moment. Here are 20 actors who nearly gave up before the breakthrough role that finally launched their careers.

The post 20 Actors Who Almost Quit Before Their Big Break appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

Many celebrities and public figures are known for their work in entertainment, politics or sports. But long before fame, some lived very different lives in uniform. Military service has shaped the paths of actors, comedians, musicians and even world leaders in ways many fans never realize. Some enlisted during wartime, others served between early career steps, and a few had surprisingly intense roles before becoming household names. Here are ten well known figures whose military service often goes unnoticed despite playing a real part in their life stories and shaping the discipline perspective and resilience they later brought to fame.

The post 10 Public Figures With Surprising Military Service appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

Movies often look polished and magical on screen, but the stories behind them can sometimes be far stranger than the films themselves. From uncomfortable on set conflicts to eerie coincidences and production decisions that feel unsettling in hindsight, certain behind the scenes details can completely change how we look at a movie. Here are 15 unsettling movie facts and behind the scenes moments that might make you see these films in a very different way.

The post 13 Unsettling Movie Facts That Might Make You See Them a Different Way appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

Even the most polished films sometimes make decisions that don’t hold up logically within their own universe. Here are 10 movies where such conceptual mistakes slipped past the editors and made it into the final cut. Even the biggest productions can overlook flaws in their own storytelling.

The post 10 Movie Mistakes That Wound Up in the Final Cut appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

Many movie scenes are designed to provoke strong emotions, but sometimes filmmakers push audiences into territory that feels genuinely uncomfortable rather than simply dramatic. Moments of tension, awkwardness, cruelty, or emotional intensity can leave viewers squirming in their seats long after the scene ends. In a discussion on the cinema subreddit, users shared the movie moments that made them the most uncomfortable while watching. These scenes are not necessarily the most violent or shocking, but they create a lingering sense of unease through acting, direction, or subject matter. Here are 15 scenes Reddit users say were the hardest for them to sit through.

The post 15 People Share the Most Uncomfortable Movie Scene They’ve Ever Watched appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

Great movies often hinge on the moment a character finally says exactly what everyone else has been thinking. Sometimes it happens before a battle, sometimes it happens in a courtroom, and sometimes in the middle of an argument. No matter what, the entire scene stops so one person can take the floor. The films in this gallery all feature speeches that audiences still quote years later. Here are 20 of the most memorable on set speeches in movie history.

The post 20 of the Most Memorable Speeches in Cinema History appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains spoilers for Invincible season 4 episodes 1-3. Only in the world of Invincible can a red dinosaur monster trigger a crisis of conscience. But that’s exactly what happens when Invincible, the superhero alter-ego of teen Mark Grayson, meets Dinosaurus. A scalier, more crimson take on Marvel‘s Incredible Hulk, Dinosaurus may go to […]

The post How Dinosaurus Sets Up the Rest of Mark Grayson’s Journey on Invincible appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.

If critics are to be believed (including this one), then both films adapted from sci-fi author Andy Weir’s bestselling books have been absolute winners. A decade later, Ridley Scott’s interpretation of Weir’s first novel, The Martian, is considered a modern classic of grounded science fiction storytelling. Meanwhile this week’s Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling […]

The post Andy Weir Gives Update on Artemis Movie and Why He Wants Jenna Ortega to Play Jazz appeared first on Den of Geek.

The first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day assures us that Peter Parker is finally a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. No more going to space with the Avengers, no more alternate realities, no more trips to Europe. Now that everyone’s forgotten who Peter Parker used to be, Spidey copes with his loneliness by crawling walls in New York City. Then again, New York City isn’t exactly the loneliest place in the world, especially in the Marvel Universe. Superheroes are bound to run into one another in the Big Apple.

More specifically, the Brand New Day trailer has a lot of stuff from the Netflix Daredevil show and from the Disney+ continuation, Daredevil: Born Again. Although Ol’ Hornhead doesn’t appear in the trailer, we do see Spidey getting the key to the city from Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), chief of staff to Mayor Wilson Fisk, and he teams up with the Punisher Frank Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal since season two of the Netflix show. Most surprisingly, the trailer shows Spider-Man fighting a band of ninjas dressed in red, which viewers of Daredevil season two and of The Defenders recognize as members of the Hand Clan.

Does this mean that Spider-Man and Daredevil will team up in Brand New Day? Peter had already met Matt Murdock in No Way Home, and got a look at his amazing reflexes. More importantly, Daredevil and Spidey have been linked since Marvel Comics promoted Daredevil #1 back in 1964 by slapping Spider-Man on the cover. As both street level heroes, the two have crossed paths and worked together time and again. When Matt Murdock gets a little too committed to his causes, as is his wont, and, oh, sets himself up as the new Kingpin or makes a deal with the Devil, Peter is usually there to beat talk some sense into DD.

Moreover, the two share some villains, including one big one hinted at in the trailer. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, first appeared in 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50, and still is a Spider-Man villain as much as he is an antagonist of Daredevil or the Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio‘s take on Fisk as a wounded baby in a giant man’s body seems particularly well-suited to face off with Tom Holland‘s more boyish Spidey, and it’s bound to happen eventually.

Will Spider-Man get to meet Daredevil and/or Kingpin in Brand New Day? Probably not, because as the trailer shows, he seems to be meeting everybody else. In just this two-and-a-half minute teaser, we see Michael Mando back as Mac Gargan (now in his Scorpion gear!), Frank Castle in his Punisher Battle Van ™, and Boomerang against Spidey. On the less cape and cowl side of things, there’s a non-Hulked Bruce Banner, the new Director of Damage Control (Tramell Tillman of Severance and calling Tom Cruise “Mister” in Mission: Impossible fame), and Peter’s old friends MJ and Ned.

That makes for a pretty stuffed trailer, and it promises a pretty stuffed movie—especially when you consider that the film also has Sadie Sink, who is most likely playing Jean Grey of the X-Men.

How will Spider-Man handle a bunch of Daredevil cameos, tons of villains, and also the X-Men? Not easily, but that’s just life in New York City for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

The post Spider-Man: Brand New Day Looks to Directly Tie into Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Den of Geek.