Though attempts have been made to set Tom Holland’s webslinger apart from those who came before, Spider-Man: No Way Home is packed with nods and winks to past iterations -- the least subtle being the arrival of villains from Raimi and Marc Webb’s Spider-Man movies. Still, it’s clear Marvel is going all out to bring Endgame-level ramifications to this new take on Spidey. It seems no one is safe, and this sentiment extends to one of the most important people in Peter’s life.
Love interests don’t exactly have the best luck in the Spider-Man universe. The webslinger is almost constantly rescuing women from bewildering heights: from Mary Jane Watson in Raimi’s first Spider-Man to Gwen Stacy in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 -- with the latter bringing fatal consequences. Even if Gwen’s death in the last Spider-Man series has faded from memory for some, No Way Home’s new trailer introduces a similar threat for new love interest: MJ.
A pivotal scene in the trailer sees MJ take a tumble from the side of a scaffolded building, and it’s eerily similar to Gwen Stacy’s aforementioned death scene. The trailer rightfully left fans wondering whether Peter would get the chance to save his girlfriend, given the hero’s desolate look at another point in the trailer. While the parallels to Gwen Stacy are clear as a bell, does it necessarily signal that MJ’s fate will mirror hers?
For all Tom Holland’s hints at the "darkness" waiting for fans in No Way Home, there are some lines that might be too affecting to cross more than once. Gwen’s death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 mirrored her demise in the comics. Although it was devastating for many, it made sense in the grand scheme. MJ, or Michelle Jones, is uncharted territory on the other hand. She has no real equivalent in the comics, and thus her fate is a complete mystery. It’s possible that her fall was shown in the trailer to get fans looking (and speculating) in a different direction, leaving the true ramifications for the film’s release.
Marvel Studios have kept much of No Way Home’s plot close to the chest, and as a result, the film is easily one of their most-anticipated films in MCU history. Whatever MJ’s fate is, it’s sure to be a unique spin on the past iterations of Spider-Man love interests'. Just as the character’s moniker is an homage to the iconic Mary Jane, so too could her arc in No Way Home remix the classic tropes that Spidey fans are used to seeing.
Spider-Man: No Way Home opens in theaters on December 17.
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