How Peter Parker Could Get His Friends Back in Spider-Man 4

Making friends as a young adult can be tough, especially when no one knows who you are. That may sound like hyperbole, but for the Peter Parker of the MCU's Earth 616, it’s the reality. 

Following a rather poorly executed spell by Doctor Strange, Peter Parker is, in the memory of those who knew him, no more. As Spider-Man gets ready for another MCU appearance, there are many questions surrounding Peter’s social life as he pushes his superhero persona to the forefront and places his personal life on the back burner. Let’s take a look at a few of the major issues the Web-Slinger will be dealing with in Spider-Man 4.

Does Peter Parker legally still exist?

First, let’s think about logistics. Strange’s spell erased Peter from the memory of anyone who knew him. This, of course, meant his friends—more on them shortly—but also his teachers, neighbors, and anyone who’d ever put a name to his face. 

But what about folks who didn’t know Peter? Does he still have a birth certificate? The answer is yes, Peter Parker still exists. By the movie's end, he’s living in his own apartment, and no matter how sketchy New York’s real estate market might be, no one is leasing anything without at least a little paperwork. Plus, as a now financially-independent adult, Peter will need a job and those pesky W-2s don't just file themselves.

So, what happened to everyone’s memories of Peter Parker?

Since Peter is the main character, we tend to focus on the spell's impact on him, but what about everyone else? Do they just have holes in their memories now? Imagine poor Ned—Peter’s lifelong best friend—suddenly waking up with huge swaths of his past forgotten because they all involved a guy he can’t remember. At best, that’s traumatizing. At worst, Ned might end up in a psyche ward babbling about the mystery man he used to spend all of his time with. 

On a smaller scale, there have to be a lot of vaguely confused people walking around Queens. We’ve all opened a yearbook and spotted a face that hardly seemed familiar, but now imagine that everyone in your class doesn’t remember you. And speaking of pictures, M.J.’s camera roll has to be an absolutely terrifying place for her. It’s filled with smiling selfies with a guy she doesn’t know at all. 

It’s likely Strange’s spell had some cleanup elements to it because neither M.J. nor Ned freaks out when Peter walks into the diner at the end of the movie. Still, that’s a lot of loose ends to tie up with a single spell.

Can Peter get his friends back?

Of course, Peter can reacquaint himself with his friends and he can take a few different routes. One is the old-fashioned method of befriending Ned and M.J. again, which sounds incredibly messy. Think of someone you know well and share tons of memories with. Now imagine having to pretend you don’t know any intimate details about them. A single slip-up referencing M.J.’s favorite movie or that time Ned wet his pants in kindergarten and poor Peter Parker will get accused of being a stalker. 

If remaking friends the traditional way is out the window, then maybe turning back to the source of the problem is the answer. That’s right, Spider-Man needs more magical help.

Doctor Strange has already mucked things up enough—and he’s off traversing the multiverse with Clea at the moment—so Spidey needs a new sorcerer. Wong would be a good first ask, but his magic and Strange’s are basically the same, so it’s not likely the Sorcerer Supreme has the right tools to fix this spell. The only other magic-based hero Peter has met in the MCU is Wanda Maximoff, who had a somewhat less than heroic turn before (maybe) dying to destroy the Darkhold. 

That means Spider-Man needs to find a new magical friend, and who better than someone closer to his age with some serious juice? Peter needs Billy Maximoff. The hero-soon-to-be-known as Wickan is the perfect magical helper for two reasons: he’s strong enough to counter a Doctor Strange spell and too naive to know any better. 

Messing with a spell that’s already gone as far off the rails as the one performed in Far from Home is a risk, but the good news is that Peter really only needs two people to remember him: Ned and M.J. It’s lonely enough being a twice-orphaned, broke superhero. At the very least, Peter Parker could use a little help from his friends along the way. Hopefully, the multiverse won't be destroyed this time around.