Regardless, in terms of The Batman: Part II and Spider-Man: Brand New Day being sequels, there is a lot that both movies’ predecessors lobbed into the air for them to slam-dunk, and only one of them might be doing so satisfyingly. The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home feature love interests who were gracefully written out of the story by the end, and whose absence would be meaningful to the narrative, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day apparently could not wait to bring Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson back.
Zoë Kravitz is Supposedly Not in Batman Part II
Amid high-profile casting announcements for The Batman: Part II, such as Scarlett Johansson in a mystery role and Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent, there has been no confirmation of whether or not Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle/Catwoman will be reprised. Nonetheless, she is not expected to return in the sequel, as The Batman’s ending made a point of her character leaving Gotham City.
To have her back so soon now would be sort of anticlimactic, and the sequel honoring her departure would allow for other characters and events to fill its Catwoman-shaped hole. But, if Selina does return in The Batman: Part II, it still will not be nearly as ruinous as MJ returning in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
MJ May Play a Big Role in Spider-Man 4
Nobody could have watched The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home and assumed that Selina and MJ were never going to return to their respective DC and Marvel franchises in the future, but it would have been far more impactful if one Spider-Man movie without MJ was allowed to follow Spider-Man: No Way Home (have her teased in a post-credits scene, sure, but do not have her back in the movie itself). This way, there would have been significant weight to the choice Peter Parker made in having everyone forget who he is, which consequently severed his roughly six-month relationship with MJ.
Not only is MJ back in the following movie, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s trailer suggests that she will play a supporting role that is equal in significance to the one she previously had, with story beats and revelations about her character made quite plain:
- MJ and Ned watching Spider-Man receive the key to New York City on television with curious expressions. This, paired with MJ having a collage of Spider-Man photos slapped onto a wall, implies that she and Ned are confused as to why their memories of Spider-Man are an unraveled patchwork and are attempting to deduce his identity.
- MJ referring to Peter as a “friendly neighbor” implies that they are literal neighbors, which could either mean that Peter deliberately moved into her apartment building to be closer to her, or she so happened to move into his building. The latter would track more believably, with MJ’s party and Peter’s gift of flowers likely being house-warming favors).
One problem that arises due to MJ’s role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that, yet again, it turns Peter into a flaky boyfriend/friend with no conviction. Peter has historically had a wealth of romantic issues in comic book source material, but emotionally manipulating his love interests and generally treating them horribly has become a staple of all live-action Spider-Men (Peter with MJ throughout Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and Peter with Gwen Stacy in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man duology).
For example, Tobey Maguire’s Peter decides to be a home-wrecker to his engaged best friend when he loses his powers, gives her a cold shoulder when he accepts his great responsibility again (even without great power), and bafflingly and publicly cheats on her with Gwen. Meanwhile, Andrew Garfield’s Peter keeps Gwen on a leash, flippantly hopping back and forth between keeping his distance to honor a promise he made to her dead dad and doing away with such internal anguish so he can date her, much less follow her around the city and brazenly flirt with her after she dumps him for said behavior.
Tom Holland’s Peter will be no better if Spider-Man: Brand New Day has him frequent MJ and Ned’s old haunts in an effort to run into them often—let alone live in the same building as MJ and/or Ned—when he alone made the choice not to tell them who he was in order to keep them safe.
This is probably how Peter manages to get himself invited to MJ’s party in the first place, unfortunately. If he gives MJ the letter explaining who he is or reads it to her himself in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, there will have been virtually no reason why he refused to at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Plus, if MJ finds out on her own, as she has once already, it will have made little difference anyway. Therefore, MJ not being in Spider-Man: Brand New Day would have honored Spider-Man: No Way Home’s massive franchise retcon and made the sequel far more solemn with Peter’s conviction being intact as he actually steers clear of those he loves, and yet both MJ and Ned seem as if they will learn or remember who he is by the end of the movie.
Batman & Spider-Man Are Scraped Thin
Furthermore, The Batman: Part II and Spider-Man: Brand New Day already have a lot going on, presumably, without love interest storylines. The Batman: Part II could feature Two-Face and the Court of Owls, for instance, while Spider-Man: Brand New Day is juggling Scorpion, the Hand, a telepath who is rumored to be the X-Men’s Jean Grey, a possible Man-Spider mutation, and more.
The Batman: Part II is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.