TV On The Radio’s 2006 hit “Wolf Like Me” has become part of the Spider-Man story, appearing early in Spider-Man: Brand New Day while the song’s original video director Jon Watts has his own history with the franchise.
by Paul Cashmere
TV On The Radio’s “Wolf Like Me” has gained another significant chapter in its long history of screen appearances, with the song used in an early montage in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and starring Tom Holland, the fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man film opened in cinemas on July 31, 2026. Marvel identifies the film as a new chapter for Peter Parker, who is living alone and working as a full-time Spider-Man after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The placement gives a 20-year-old TV On The Radio recording a new connection to one of cinema’s biggest franchises, while also completing an unusual circle involving the song’s original music video.
Cretton has said that “Wolf Like Me” was selected after the filmmakers tried a range of songs for the sequence. He told MovieWeb that he is a longtime TV On The Radio fan and recalled seeing the band perform at Madison Square Garden as one of his favourite New York experiences.
“We tried a lot of different songs, not just for what the song is about, but also just for something that creates the right vibe for that sequence,” Cretton said. He added that when the song was placed into the montage, it felt right not only for the sequence but for establishing the tone of the film.
The song appears within the first 30 minutes of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, accompanying a montage involving Peter Parker and his increasingly all-consuming life as Spider-Man. The placement gives the track a particularly direct relationship with the film’s themes of physical change, instinct and transformation.
For TV On The Radio, the connection is particularly appropriate because “Wolf Like Me” was already linked to Spider-Man through its music video. The 2006 video was directed by Jon Watts, who would later direct Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Watts therefore moved from directing TV On The Radio’s visual interpretation of “Wolf Like Me” to directing three films centred on Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
There is another TV On The Radio connection to the franchise. Frontman Tunde Adebimpe appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming as Mr Cobbwell, Peter Parker’s chemistry teacher. That gives the band a relationship with the Holland era of Spider-Man that predates the use of “Wolf Like Me” in Brand New Day.
“Wolf Like Me” was released in 2006 as the first single from TV On The Radio’s second studio album, Return To Cookie Mountain. The single was issued in the United Kingdom by 4AD in July 2006 and became the band’s most successful US single, reaching No. 37 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also reached No. 89 in the UK. The song was subsequently voted No. 63 in the 2006 Triple J Hottest 100.
Return To Cookie Mountain marked a major step forward for the Brooklyn band. Released in July 2006, the album expanded the experimental foundation established by their 2004 debut Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, combining post-punk, electronics, rock, soul and layered vocal arrangements. David Bowie contributed backing vocals to “Province”, while Katrina Ford of Celebration appeared on “Wolf Like Me” and other tracks.
The album is now 20 years old, placing the Spider-Man placement in the middle of a significant anniversary period for TV On The Radio. The group went on to release Dear Science in 2008, Nine Types Of Light in 2011 and Seeds in 2014. Dear Science reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200, the highest US album chart position of the band’s career.
“Wolf Like Me” itself has maintained an unusually long cultural life. Beyond its original release, it has appeared in films, television programs, advertising and video games, including Never Back Down, The Invisible, Kill Your Darlings, One Tree Hill, Guitar Hero 5 and several racing games. It was also used in the 2022 stop-motion film Wendell & Wild.
TV On The Radio’s history has included extended periods away from touring. The band returned to live performance in 2024 after a five-year absence and continued touring through 2025, including performances in Australia. David Sitek did not participate in those live dates, although he remains a member of the group.
The Spider-Man placement therefore gives “Wolf Like Me” another audience at a time when its parent album is being reassessed two decades after its release. The song’s distinctive combination of driving drums, layered vocals, guitars, electronics and baritone saxophone remains recognisable, while its use in Brand New Day places a 2006 alternative rock single inside a contemporary blockbuster soundtrack.
For TV On The Radio, “Wolf Like Me” has proved unusually durable. Its latest appearance does not change the song’s place in the band’s catalogue, but it adds another chapter to a recording that has repeatedly crossed from the alternative music world into film, television, games and popular culture. In this case, the Spider-Man connection runs deeper than a licensing credit, linking the song, its original video director and one of the franchise’s principal actors and filmmakers across two decades.
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