Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.Newlyweds Zendaya and Tom Holland made all their Spider-Man: Brand New Day press stops together, with the trailers and poster for the film teasing that MJ and Peter Parker’s relationship would be a major plot point. And it was—but the film didn’t end with a neat and tidy romantic reconciliation for the two. Instead, as the title of the film suggests, they have a brand new beginning as friends first...and maybe more later.MJ doesn’t remember Peter in the film because of the choice Peter made at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home to let Doctor Strange cast a spell that made everyone forget him.Four years later, that spell is intact. MJ has newly graduated from MIT and lives with Peter’s other best friend, Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), in New York City. She and Ned remember Spider-Man saving them multiple times in high school. But they don’t know Peter at all.MJ has a boyfriend whom Peter sees kissing her when he crashes Ned and MJ’s housewarming party. MJ is not passionately in love with the guy; he only appears in that one scene and isn’t even given a name in the film, which says something about his significance.When telepath Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) goes to Peter’s apartment and finds the letter Peter didn’t give MJ at the end of No Way Home—in which he explained his identity and their romantic history—she threatens to take over MJ’s mind.Peter races Jean to MJ’s while in his Spider-Man costume. He gets MJ to agree to leave her apartment with him since she’s in danger. When he finds a safe-enough space, they talk. She asks him about their history—whether they were acquaintances, friends, or something more—and removes his mask. He kisses her. She acts like she remembers Peter, only for Jean to reveal seconds later that she’s been controlling MJ the entire time. True love’s kiss does not actually break the spell, she quips while still in MJ’s body.Jean sees MJ’s memories and tells Peter he’s not in them at all. MJ herself confirms this later in the film too, telling Peter that “the spell worked” after she finds his letter. She is upset that he didn’t give it to her years ago and asks if he was ever going to tell her who he was.He doesn’t answer directly. Peter explains he was only trying to protect her, admitting he loves her, and she’s everything to him. MJ says she understands why the girl in the letter felt the way she did about Peter, but she isn’t that girl. “I don’t love you,” she tells him. In fact, she adds, she doesn’t even know him.But she likes him enough to trust him and let him take her home. There, she invites him up to her apartment to meet Ned while in his Spider-Man costume. The trio’s friendly dynamic naturally returns as Ned and Peter play with Legos. MJ sketches them—but with no Spider-Man mask on Peter. That interaction sets the stage for them to end the film as true friends—and some closing moments left fans wondering whether MJ remembers more of Peter than she let on.In the middle of the film, Peter asks MJ about her boyfriend, and she talks about how he’ll call her out for “withholding” things.When Jean later has part of the city, including MJ, frozen in her psychic hold, a tear streams down MJ’s cheek. Some fans theorize that was a sign of her feelings and worry for Peter because no one else affected was emoting. Others believe it was because she remembered all her past with Peter.Peter is hospitalized after the final battle. He wakes up and sees MJ’s sketch of him and Ned by his hospital bed, signaling that she visited him.As the film ends, MJ appears sitting on a rooftop that fans recognized as the same spot MJ, Peter, and Ned were at the end of No Way Home. She smiles and holds the broken black dahlia necklace Peter gave her in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which she also had on during the housewarming party.Jean appears smiling on a bus out of New York City, with some fans theorizing that she might also have restored MJ’s memories of Peter as a thank-you after he nearly died saving her. Though nothing is confirmed, there’s hope for MJ and Peter’s romantic future.Zendaya and Holland avoided saying too much about their characters’ relationship during their press run. They did talk to IGN about their experience doing scenes where MJ and Ned no longer know Peter.“It was really fun,” Holland said. “It was a creative challenge that came with some logistical questions, like: What does she actually remember? I think we landed on the idea that they remember Spider-Man. They remember their interactions with him, they just don’t know who he is anymore. One of my favorite details is that Ned is trying to figure out who he is because he wants to thank him, and I think that’s just so sweet and so Ned. Jacob does that so well. It opened up some really interesting creative opportunities for us.”Zendaya viewed it as an acting exercise. “It’s like an improv class exercise where someone says: ‘Okay, now do the scene as if you’ve never met each other before,’” she said.