Now that Tom Holland’s third outing as Spider-Man is playing in cinemas (and smashing box office records, we might add), fans are inevitably looking ahead to the future of the role in the MCU - especially after that ending. Surely Peter Parker has some unfinished business to attend to before his story comes to a conclusion in the MCU? And if so, how will his best mates be involved?
Zendaya plays MJ and like May and Ned, her character isn’t unique to Marvel’s telling of the superhero story. Where there’s a Peter Parker, there’s an MJ, so if Peter Parker ceases to exist in future Spidey films, so too could MJ - unless, of course, she becomes the first female Spider-Man (Spider-Woman), but she’s previously said she’d leave the web slinging to Tom Holland for the time-being.
Related: Fans Are Now Begging For An Amazing Spider-Man 3 With Andrew Garfield
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Warning - No Way Home spoilers in the rest of this article.
Will MJ be in Spider-Man 4?
By the end of No Way Home, everybody, including MJ and Ned, have no memory of knowing who Peter Parker is is. Some time after Doctor Strange casts the new spell, Peter nervously prepares a whole speech to tell MJ and Ned again that he is Spider-Man. But, after seeing them happy and talking about starting at MIT, he decides against it for now and seems okay with being given a fresh start. But will he stick with that decision?
If there’s one thing we know about Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, it’s that he’s very loyal to his friends. The whole multiverse mess in No Way Home was started because he asked Doctor Strange to cast the spell so that his friends could go to MIT. Just before Strange reversed the spell and MJ and Ned lost all memory of him being Spider-Man, Peter promised he’d come and find them and tell them again. Let’s not forget MJ told Peter that she loves him and before he could respond, she told him to tell her he loves her back when he finds her again.
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With all of that said, Peter surely isn’t going to turn his back on his friends? We don’t think he would completely, but after learning the hard way what happens when loved ones get too involved in Spider-Man missions with the death of Aunt May, Peter could very well decide to keep a watchful eye over his two besties for now and find a time in the future to tell them.
There’s also some imparting wisdom from his Spider-Man counterparts which could affect Peter’s decision to let MJ and Ned in on his secret again. Andrew Garfield shared the pain of losing his MJ (Gwen Stacey) and told Peter he blamed himself for years to come for her death. Earlier in that film, Andrew and Tobey’s Peter Parkers spoke about the struggle to hold down a relationship in their line of work, so will Tom Holland’s Peter soak that in? Andrew Garfield’s Peter is also the one who stopped Zendaya’s MJ from falling to her death during the final action scene on the Statue of Liberty in NWH. Perhaps, after Zendaya was given a second chance at life, Peter (Tom Holland) will keep MJ and Ned from knowing about him being Spider-Man again for their own safety, taking in what his Spider-Man brothers have told him about their experiences.
What’s more, there are plenty of new characters yet to be introduced to Peter Parker in the MCU, such as Gwen Stacey, Miles Morales - who Tom has said should be introduced into the MCU - Black Cat and Harry Osborn, to name a few. So perhaps Peter Parker will move forward as the lone wolf Spider-Man for now, which is more representative of the original comic book character anyway.
Only time will tell, but for now, we’ve been left with an epic Spider-Man adventure in No Way Home, one which has broken box office records and is now competing against the pre-pandemic Avengers: Infinity War.
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Spider-Man: No Way Home was released in UK cinemas on 15th December 2021.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Spider-Man, Zendaya, Tom Holland, MCU