Marvel Studios' Spider-Man: No Way Home is a smash hit! The new MCU film is raking in money across the globe and has already cemented its place with the third-highest grossing domestic box office opening ever. By many accounts, the film is a love letter to Spider-Man as a character. It's a Peter Parker-focused story at its core, despite a vast number of special appearances from around the Marvel Universe and some pretty chaotic action sequences.
Warning: Spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home follow
Fans of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy will surely recall the romance between Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson.
The first film sees young Parker pining after girl-next-door Mary Jane long before he becomes Spider-Man while the sequel sees them begin their relationship in earnest. By 2007's Spider-Man 3, Pete's ready to propose to MJ before a certain alien symbiote complicates matters. Under the influence of the infamous black suit, Peter begins behaving quite rudely and not at all like his regular, upstanding self, which ends up hurting MJ.
By the end of that film, Parker goes to MJ to try and make amends and rekindle what they had. The final shot of the film reunites them, and then cuts to the credits.
With Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker making a return in No Way Home, it begs the question of what actually happened between Peter and MJ in the decade-plus since the end of Spider-Man 3. This was a topic that the MCU addressed, giving some closure for one of the original comic-book movie power couples.
Is Spider-Man Able To Keep The Romance Alive?
In a quiet moment during before the final battle of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the three Peter Parkers (Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire from the Raimi films and Andrew Garfield from the Marc Webb films) work duteously in a high school lab to whip up specialized cures for the four Multiversal villains that have shown up to cause trouble for them in the MCU.
It's at this point of the movie where Garfield's Parker and Maguire's Parker have the following exchange regarding their love lives:
Maguire's Peter: “You have someone?”
Garfield's Peter: “No, I got no time for Peter Parker stuff. Do you?”
Maguire's Peter: “Uh that’s a little complicated.”
Garfield's Peter: “No, I understand. I guess it’s just not in the cards for guys like us”
Maguire's Peter: “Well, I wouldn’t give up, took a while, but we made it work.”
Garfield's Peter: “Yeah?”
Maguire's Peter: “Yeah. Me and MJ, my MJ which uh, it gets confusing here.”
Spidey and MJ Sittin' In A Web
So, based on what Maguire's Peter says, it seems that he is still together with Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson back in his home universe.
The revelation is sure to bring a smile to the faces of fans who love those the three Sam Raimi Spider-Man films in which Peter and MJ have an aforementioned at-times wholesome, at-times tumultuous courtship.
On the other hand, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man lost "his MJ," Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy during the events of 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in which he failed to save her from falling to her death. This clearly still weighs on Peter very heavily in the film. Perhaps knowing that other Spider-Men have found the work/life balance to make a relationship possible, he might be inspired by Maguire to try his hand at love again.
Meanwhile, Tom Holland's Peter Parker just had everyone in the world forget that he even ever existed, up to and including his girlfriend, MJ. By the end of the film, he's alone. A fact made all the clearer by the somber web-swinging sequence that serves as the final shot of the film.
Marvel Studios' and Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in many theaters around the globe.
