Talk about getting caught in the middle.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has reportedly managed to do something few Hollywood blockbusters could have predicted: get the same few seconds altered in both Russia and Ukraine - for almost completely opposite political reasons.
At the center of the unlikely controversy is Russian singer Monetochka, whose real name is Elizaveta Gyrdymova, and her 2024 song "Monopoly."
The track appears for only a few seconds during a scene in which Peter Parker visits the New Avengers headquarters in Brighton Beach and encounters Yelena Belova, played by Florence Pugh. Yet those few seconds have apparently become politically radioactive.
Ukraine Says No To The Russian Song
The trouble began almost immediately after audiences learned that Monetochka's Russian-language song appeared in the Marvel blockbuster.
In Ukraine, some moviegoers objected to hearing a Russian artist in a major theatrical release while their country remains at war with Russia. The reaction was especially complicated because Monetochka is hardly a poster child for Vladimir Putin's government.
Quite the opposite.
The singer left Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, publicly condemned the war and has helped raise money for Ukrainian refugees. Russia subsequently designated her a "foreign agent," and she has faced legal action from Moscow.
That apparently wasn't enough for some Ukrainian moviegoers.
Following complaints, the Ukrainian distributor confirmed that the brief sequence containing Monetochka's song would be removed from the version shown in the country. Reports indicated the resulting cut was only around three seconds shorter.
Then Russia Apparently Cut Her Too
Here is where the story gets even stranger.
Monetochka's anti-war stance has also made her deeply unwelcome with Russian authorities. She was designated a foreign agent in 2023 and has lived outside Russia since leaving the country. In July 2026, a Moscow court reportedly sentenced her in absentia to a year in prison in a case concerning Russia's foreign-agent requirements.
So when Spider-Man: Brand New Day surfaced in Russia, Monetochka disappeared there too.
There is an important distinction: major Hollywood studios stopped officially releasing films in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, meaning the copies being shown there are unauthorized rather than an official Russian theatrical release.
In one Russian-dubbed pirated copy circulating online, "Monopoly" was reportedly replaced by Rihanna's "S&M."
The result is an almost absurd piece of geopolitical pop-culture symmetry.
Ukraine didn't want the song because Monetochka is Russian. Russia apparently didn't want it because Monetochka opposes Russia's war.
And somehow Spider-Man ended up in the middle.
Monetochka Was Thrilled To Make Marvel
The controversy is particularly ironic considering how excited Monetochka reportedly was about hearing her music in the movie.
After seeing the film, she said she initially assumed the track would be buried quietly in the background. Instead, she was stunned by how prominently it could be heard in the theater, saying her "heart just stopped" when the moment arrived.
There may also have been more intention behind the song choice than audiences initially realized.
Russian film critic Tamara Khodova reportedly contacted director Destin Daniel Cretton about "Monopoly." According to her account, Cretton replied that he loved Monetochka's song and was pleased with the reaction it received from Russian-speaking viewers.
What was presumably intended as a clever cultural touch for a Brighton Beach sequence instead became one of the strangest controversies surrounding the movie.
A Russian singer who condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine has now reportedly had her music removed in Ukraine because she's Russian - and removed in Russia because she's anti-war.
Peter Parker has faced some complicated villains over the years.
But geopolitical music censorship might be a new one.
