Jacob Batalon Joins Team Galaxy in Samsung's 'Spider-Man' Film

Jacob Batalon has traded his role as Spider-Man's sidekick for a permanent seat on Samsung's roster.

Samsung premiered the next chapter of its Sony Pictures partnership ahead of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," in theaters July 31.

Emmy-nominated Marvel alum Kasra Farahani directed the brand film, developed with creative production company Chromista.

The story follows Spider-Man fighting crime across the city, putting a Galaxy device through the wear and tear of a night on patrol.

Set in Peter Parker's apartment, the original story is cut with real footage from "Brand New Day."

Farahani stages the apartment like a real location in Peter Parker's world, using the production-design eye he brought to the MCU.

Keena Grigsby, Samsung's CMO and VP of Mobile eXperience, points to a story fans would want to watch on its own.

"This collaboration gave us the opportunity to create an exclusive brand film for fans that brings Galaxy foldables naturally into Spider-Man's world through an original story," she said in a press release. 

"The most successful partnerships create stories fans genuinely want to experience, with technology integrated in ways that feel natural to the characters and stories they love."

Batalon, who plays Ned Leeds, joins Team Galaxy as the brand's newest ambassador.

Earlier this summer, he helped introduce the "Spidey Tracker," an interactive fan tool powered by Galaxy devices.

This new role formalized the relationship between the brand and the actor that started on set.

"Getting to use the Fold7 and Galaxy Watch on set was a cool experience, and I’m excited to officially join Team Galaxy as a natural extension beyond the movie," Batalon shared.

Signing Batalon gives Samsung an ongoing celebrity endorsement it can run even after the movie leaves theaters.

The Fabricator Teases Hardware Ahead of Unpacked

In the film, a device called the "Fabricator" builds gadgets made to survive Spider-Man's line of work.

The gear teases Galaxy hardware that Samsung hasn't announced yet.

Each device works as a tool suited to the pace and unpredictability of life behind the mask.

Casting the gear as survival tools connects the product story, which is part of a longer rollout, straight to the character.

Sony scattered a handful of easter eggs through the footage for fans watching closely as Ned uses the Spidey Tracker around the city.

The next chapter comes at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, where Samsung is expected to show what the teaser hinted at.

The company will stream the event on its website, its newsroom, and YouTube at 9 a.m. EDT.

The campaign runs across SpideyTracker.com, X, and a social campaign that keeps fans engaged between the film's release and Unpacked.

Teasing real hardware through a fictional gadget gives the product launch a running story fans can follow before anything is official.

The Reason Brands Chase Spider-Man's Screen Time

Global product placement spending hit roughly $33 billion in 2024, with products a character actually uses and mentions pulling about 81% brand recall.

A standard TV commercial only gets roughly 32%.

Samsung answered this math by writing an original scene inside Peter Parker's apartment, then signed Batalon as an ambassador to extend the reach.

Three moves made the placement work, and any brand chasing big IP can copy them:

• Give the product a job in the story. The Fabricator solves a problem for Spider-Man, so the function sticks in memory, not the logo.
• Lock in the ambassador while the role is hot. Samsung signed Batalon off the same set where Spidey Tracker launched, catching him before press attention faded.
• Time your event to the film's marketing peak. Samsung slotted Unpacked into Sony's pre-release push, so the movie's promo builds the crowd for its own launch.

Brand recall is the currency of screen time, and Samsung is spending its story to buy more of it.

However, it's not the only brand riding "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" into theaters.

Liquid I.V., working with agency Blue Raven, cast Batalon as Ned in its own spot.

It paired two limited-edition movie-themed flavors with a national campaign timed to the July 31 release.

Sony has now placed Ned at the center of two separate brand stories that quietly orbit Spider-Man's unseen heroics.

It's a strategy that mirrors Samsung's own history of tying products to blockbuster releases.

These collabs include its recent Galaxy S26 Ultra campaign with "The Devil Wears Prada."

Our Take: Who's Really Buying the Bigger Spotlight Here?

We think Samsung is doing something sneakier than product placement.

It's using Sony's marketing machine and budget to build a countdown clock for its own event five days later.

Every dollar Sony spends getting people into theaters on July 31 is also a dollar spent warming up an audience for Unpacked on July 22.

And it gets the emotional runway of a movie release without paying for a single trailer spot.

We think it works because a phone launch on its own has no story, but one riding a franchise everyone already cares about does.

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