Zendaya, an actress who goes by just one name, is returning to the role recognizable by just two letters: MJ. Granted, those initial don’t stand for “Mary Jane” but rather “Michelle Jones,” who served as the famous redhead’s MCU equivalent in last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and will continue to do so in next year’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.
The Disney Channel star took to social media this week with a photo of Jacob Batalon, in which the actor known for playing Peter Parker’s best friend Ned wields an acoustic guitar and possibly gets ready to strum out a tune.
Zendaya and Batalon aren’t the only familiar faces confirmed to be back for the superhero sequel, though. Hemky Madera, who featured in Homecoming as the Deli-Grocery owner Mr. Delmar, was spotted on set recently with Tom Holland, who evidently’s also returning for the upcoming film despite being turned to dust in Avengers: Infinity War. That’s one mystery we can figure out in due time.
It’ll be interesting to see what role Peter’s local friends will play in the story this time around, seeing as how the film’s set to take him well beyond his New York neighborhood. Production has already begun in London with further plans to take the action to Germany, though a recent quote from Kevin Feige suggests that MJ and Ned, along with some other classmates, may still be along for the ride.
“Well, when does that movie take place? We know it’s the summer. I think it’s summer vacation. I think he’s going to Europe with his friends. I don’t know what summer… I mean, I do know [but you don’t].”
You can expect this summer holiday to be rudely disrupted by Spidey’s next foe Mysterio, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, though you’ll likely remember that Peter’s in a pretty tough spot already thanks to his last opponent, Thanos. We’ll be finding out how our hero gets de-dusted when Avengers 4 hits on May 3rd, 2019. After that, the wall-crawler will be free to explore Europe in Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.
