New female lead to join Tom Holland?

There’s been an avalanche of Spider-Man 4 rumors lately, which suggest that Sony and Marvel are getting closer to actually announcing the sequel’s release date. The highly-anticipated movie has been in the making since No Way Home premiered in late 2021, but we still lack a proper reveal.

That’s actually the only official information we have about Spider-Man 4. Sony and Marvel confirmed nearly three years ago that a fourth movie is upcoming. They also said Tom Holland would reprise his Peter Parker role.

While I’m not the biggest fan of Spidey, I’m now interested more than ever in Holland’s variant. That’s because we’re getting to a place where we can get different Spider-Man stories than Sony’s non-MCU movies. We’re following Peter into adulthood more than we’ve ever done before.

Not to mention that No Way Home practically reset Spider-Man to factory settings, so to speak. Peter has lost everything. Sony and Marvel have a unique chance to tell a completely different story with a new trilogy part of the MCU.

The newest Spider-Man 4 plot leak fits very well with that approach. But I can’t tell you anything about it without warning you that big spoilers might follow below.

Prolific leaker MyTimeToShineHello shared the following plot detail on X. Marvel is reportedly looking for new female and male leads for Spider-Man 4 to serve as a “foil for Peter.”

As you can see, she also said that Sony and Marvel want to start shooting the movie in the UK at the end of May 2025. That gives the studios plenty of time to announce the film.

My first reaction to seeing “new female lead” in there made me worry that Spider-Man 4 would introduce a new love interest for Peter rather than showing us how MJ (Zendaya) starts remembering Peter and how they reunite. That’s what all MCU fans want.

Yes, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) made everyone forget who Peter is, including MJ. But she has to remember him eventually. Not to mention that rumors say Zendaya should return for Spider-Man 4.

But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to postpone this reunion. Like I said before, No Way Home delivered a big reset for Peter. He lost his remaining family as Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) died. This happened just a few months after Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) died in Endgame.

Speaking of Iron Man, Spidey also lost access to Stark tech in No Way Home. On that note, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) also forgot who Spidey is.

The Avengers, including Doctor Strange, no longer know who Spider-Man is, though they’re aware that Spider-Man exists. Remove MJ and Ned (Jacob Batalon) and Spidey is alone. Completely alone.

Peter is undeterred, however. At the end of No Way Home, we see him create his own Spider-Man suit because he knows he has to continue to save the neighborhood. That is, he accepts all these sacrifices to be the superhero others need.

Back to the new female lead, we can’t have Peter and MJ reconnect too soon in Spider-Man 4. We have to see Peter struggle without MJ and Ned. It’s not enough for him to want Strange to perform this heartbreaking spell. He has to commit to keeping MJ and Ned safe by being a stranger to them.

Peter has to start letting go and moving on, as the spell implies he can’t have a future with MJ as long as his Spidey. We saw him do that when he refrained from telling MJ who he is at the end of No Way Home.

With all that in mind, a new female lead makes so much sense. In such a scenario, I’d venture to guess that MJ would not remember who Spider-Man is until much later. Maybe after he starts having feelings for someone else. 

MJ should still appear in Spider-Man 4 and other MCU movies. The same leaker said recently that Sony and Marvel had inked a new deal for Spidey to appear in another MCU trilogy and have a big role in Doomsday and Secret Wars.

The leaker doesn’t say who this female lead might be. Murphy’s Multiverse notes that fans already speculate Sony and Marvel might go for Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat. She was rumored to appear in Spider-Man movies in the past.

There’s also another benefit to having a new potential love interest for Peter. It could indicate that Sony and Marvel might deliver a more grounded Spider-Man 4 story rather than going for a more ambitious multiverse adventure. I’ve often said that reusing the multiverse angle is probably not the best idea. Instead, I want to see how Peter copes with his new life after No Way Home.

If this plot detail is real, I’d expect Sony and Marvel to announce the new leads when the time comes to reveal the Spider-Man 4 release date.