Beware, for there are Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers lurking from here on out…
Now that the obligatory warning is out of the way, it’s time to dive into how the web-slinging blockbuster could potentially tie directly into next year’s hotly-anticipated sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and it’s all to do with one of the former’s recurring plot points.
Thanks to Mysterio outing Spidey’s secret identity to the world, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker finds his chances of future academic success effectively ruined, which also has massive implications for Zendaya’s MJ and Jacob Batalon’s Ned. The trio want to stick together with MIT their preferred destination, but the circumstances and publicity surrounding Quentin Beck’s demise and final revelation make it impossible.
However, by the time No Way Home draws to a close, nobody remembers who Peter is, and we see him watching MJ and Ned celebrate their acceptance into the prestigious institute. We know that Wakanda Forever was shooting in and around the MIT campus, and it’ll also mark the Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, another alumni from the comic books.
That means Riri, MJ and Ned could all be attending MIT at the same time, leading to all sorts of tantalizing crossover possibilities in either Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the Ironheart series on Disney Plus or the fourth Spider-Man blockbuster given the heavy Tony Stark influence on both Peter and Riri.