{"id":451448,"date":"2026-05-29T17:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/451448\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:19:09","slug":"zendaya-on-spider-mans-heartbreaking-peter-and-mj-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/451448\/","title":{"rendered":"Zendaya On Spider-Man’s \u2018Heartbreaking\u2019 Peter And MJ Split"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it even considered a break-up if one party literally doesn\u2019t remember the other\u2019s existence? No, we\u2019re not talking Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind<\/a> \u2013 this is the fate of Tom Holland\u2019s Peter Parker<\/a> and Zendaya\u2019s MJ as we enter Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a>. Due to the reality-altering events of previous film No Way Home<\/a>, the MCU<\/a> at large no longer remembers Parker, nor that he\u2019s the civilian counterpart to New York\u2019s friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. And that includes Peter\u2019s best mate Ned (Jacob Batalon), and his girlfriend MJ too \u2013 who each ventured off to college while the newly-anonymous Peter committed to full-time hero-dom.<\/p>\n

It was a bittersweet ending to the Jon Watts-directed Spider-Man trilogy, and true to the sacrificial essence of the character\u2019s \u2018great responsibility\u2019. And now, as Brand New Day picks up, MJ has another romantic interest \u2013 played by Ahsoka<\/a>\u2019s Eman Esfandi \u2013 while Peter has to simply watch on. Even for its cast, it\u2019s emotionally wrenching. \u201cAs someone who cares about the characters and cares about these films, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my God, it\u2019s so heartbreaking,\u2019\u201d Zendaya tells Empire. \u201cYou just feel so bad because you want them to be happy, and you know ultimately they would be happier together.\u201d<\/p>\n

While MJ doesn\u2019t remember Peter, she does \u2013 of course \u2013 still know about Spider-Man, and it seems the pair will cross paths in the more spandex-centric side of Brand New Day. Given the nature of Doctor Strange\u2019s magic spell, get ready for a different kind of MJ-Spidey dynamic. \u201cIt\u2019s easy in a way, because I don\u2019t have to play that I know this person,\u201d explains Zendaya. \u201cI don\u2019t have to play all the history that they have together because seemingly, to her, they don\u2019t.\u201d Here\u2019s hoping love, uh, finds a way.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

Read Empire\u2019s full Spider-Man: Brand New Day cover story \u2013 speaking to Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Kevin Feige, Destin Daniel Cretton, Amy Pascal and more \u2013 in the July 2026 issue<\/a>, on sale Thursday June 4. Pre-order a copy online here<\/a>. Spider-Man: Brand New Day comes to cinemas from July 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is it even considered a break-up if one party literally doesn\u2019t remember the other\u2019s existence? No, we\u2019re not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-451448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}