Peter B. Parker is probably ranked number two on my list of Peter Parkers. Voiced by Jake Johnson, he is the gruff and messed-up Spider-Man who tries to help Miles Morales figure out his new title in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. When we first met Peter B. Parker, he wasn’t exactly in the best place. He was struggling in his own life, but after meeting Miles, he started learning how to be a better man.
… Which is why the trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse gave us one of the more shocking twists for Peter. During the first movie, he talked about how his relationship with Mary Jane (Zoë Kravitz) fell apart and the two got a divorce because he didn’t want kids. And personally, the part of the movie that broke me and had me sobbing outside of Miles coming into his own as Spider-Man was Peter realizing because of his happiness for Miles’ success that he may want kids.
It was such a Peter move to ruin his own life and not realize what he actually wanted that I just started crying and the end of the movie had him going back home to Mary Jane to try and work on their relationship. So color me shocked when Peter Parker swung into the trailer with a baby carrier on his chest. And that baby? GUYS WE’RE GETTING MAYDAY.
Here comes Mayday
In the afterparty for the trailer release, creatives Chris Miller and Phil Lord spoke with Hailee Steinfeld about the sequel and confirmed that Mary Jane and Peter got back together and had a baby after Into the Spider-Verse.
Our little baby Spider-Girl won’t be swinging quite yet but we are definitely getting Mary Jane and Peter’s first kid in Across the Spider-Verse and I feel so proud of Peter? She’s so cute with Mary Jane’s red hair and two different color eyes and I just want to make sure she’s happy.
There’s a popular comic storyline with May in it (and we get to see her when she’s older), but what’s delightful about her in Across the Spider-Verse is that she’s still so young and we have no idea where the movie is going to take her. From the comics, we know that May wasn’t a mutant, but she did get her powers from her father, so she does have spider-like abilities. Speaking with Lord and Miller, Steinfeld included a bit about Mayday Parker, saying that she’s got some “spider stuff” going on. As of now, it’s unclear exactly how much we’ll see of the little Spider-Baby’s powers in Across the Spider-Verse.
But having Peter swing into the scene without a baby in the baby carrier makes me think that, yes, she will already be jumping off the walls and swinging in to see her de facto family. I hope this also means that we’ll get more of Zoë Kravitz as Mary Jane Parker now that she’s back together with Peter. While the Mary Jane in Miles’ universe had a bit more to say after the death of her Peter (Chris Pine), it still wasn’t that much, and I’d like to see how Mary Jane would play a part in this story despite not having abilities.
It’s so exciting that Mayday is being brought into the fold because I love Spider-Girl, and these movies definitely feel like they’re building up to Peter’s daughter joining the fray—especially after his comment about wanting kids at the end of Into the Spider-Verse.
(featured image: Sony Pictures Animation)
