Spider-Man 4 Set Photo Confirms Key Black Panther Connection

A new set photo from Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: Brand New Day confirmed the sequel will include a fun connection to 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Spider-Man 4 is next up on the release slate for the MCU, finally following up on Tom Holland's efforts in the franchise's biggest solo movie to date. The sequel will also feature numerous connections to the broader Marvel universe, including a revisit to a minor plot point from the final movie in Phase 4.

A set photo from Spider-Man: Brand New Day showed stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon posing together. While Holland is wearing his new Spider-Man suit, Batalon is wearing a shirt from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he and Zendaya's MJ were confirmed to be attending college at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

While MIT has had a consistent presence in the MCU for years, it is where Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams attended college. Upon her introduction in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she made her first on-screen appearance on the MIT campus, discussing a business transaction with a fellow student while Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) surveilled the area.

This confirms that Riri Williams, Ned Leeds, and MJ Watson are all MIT students at some point in the MCU. While there are no other confirmed details about what MJ and Ned are doing in college, this may help set up a meeting between Ironheart and Spider-Man in a future project.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be the next film released in the MCU's Phase 6 slate and the fourth Spider-Man solo movie. Starring Tom Holland, Jacob Batalon, Zendaya, Michael Mando, Jon Bernthal, and Mark Ruffalo, the film will show Peter Parker reinventing his life in a world unaware of his existence before taking on terrifying new antagonists who will put his life and loved ones in danger. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will swing into theaters on July 31, 2026.

Will Black Panther 2 Impact Spider-Man 4?

While at least three major MCU characters are studied at MIT, the odds of them interacting in this movie seem fairly low. Early in Ironheart (which takes place between six months and a year after Black Panther 2), Riri is expelled from MIT after selling projects to other students to fund upgrades to her suit, meaning she is unlikely to come back to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for her studies.

Meanwhile, depending on when Spider-Man 4 takes place in the MCU timeline, Ned and MJ will likely be in their formative years at MIT, having graduated from Midtown Tech in No Way Home. Remaining friends after Doctor Strange's spell, they may only have minor roles in Brand New Day, but fans will be anxious to see how they add to the story.

Considering these facts, Ironheart and Spider-Man are not expected to meet in the MCU until a later date, which could potentially occur in larger team-up movies like Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars.

While other Ironheart characters have interactions with Spider-Man in different corners of the multiverse, fans continue to wait for when these two franchises will cross paths, be it in the northeastern United States or elsewhere.