No Way Home Could Launch A Spider-Girl Spinoff In Maguire's Universe

The events of Spider-Man: No Way Home make it very possible for a Spider-Girl spinoff to happen in Tobey Maguire’s universe. No Way Home ends with a myriad of possibilities for what could happen with its characters in future movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and beyond. Maguire’s Spider-Man, referred to as “Peter 2” in the movie, was no different in that regard, and his universe could easily be expanded by introducing a character with major ties to the Spider-Man franchise: Peter Parker’s daughter.

In the main continuity of the comics, Peter and Mary Jane had a baby girl named May Parker, but she was kidnapped by the Green Goblin after her birth and the two of them were told that their child was stillborn; whether May was killed was left ambiguous, but the plot line hasn’t been significantly followed up on in the twenty-five years since it first happened. Peter and Mary Jane have gotten complicated over the years, including having their marriage erased from existence in One More Day, so there hasn’t been a good opportunity to explore the idea of them having a child in more recent comics. The idea has been explored in alternate continuities, however, either through May Parker surviving the Green Goblin or from the two of them just having a different daughter together, and that daughter often gets powers of her own and fights crime as Spider-Girl.

The way that Spider-Man: No Way Home ends could easily set up another story of Peter and Mary Jane having a daughter who becomes Spider-Girl. While there have been other characters without a direct connection to Peter Parker to bear the moniker of Spider-Girl - most notably Anya Corazon - Spider-Girl is most recognizable as the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane. If a Spider-Girl spinoff were to happen, it would make the most sense for it to go with that angle, and what No Way Home reveals about Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and his relationship with Mary Jane would make it more than plausible for it to happen.

Who Is Spider-Girl In Marvel Comics?

Mayday Parker and Annie Parker, the Daughters of Spider-Man and Mary Jane and Future Spider-Girls

There have been a few characters to bear the moniker of Spider-Girl in the comics, but it’s mostly associated with the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane in various alternate continuities. The first, and most well-known, version of this May “Mayday” Parker from the Marvel Comics 2 line of comics. Marvel Comics 2 was a line of comics set in a universe where many superheroes and supervillains have had children who have taken up their mantles. Going along with that, Peter and Mary Jane’s daughter was saved from the Green Goblin by Peter’s clone Kaine, and as a teenager, Mayday decided to follow in her father’s footsteps to become Spider-Girl.

Another, more recent version of Spider-Girl is Annie May Parker from Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows. Renew Your Vows takes place in an alternate continuity where the Superhuman Registration Act never got off the ground because the Avengers and the X-Men agreed to police superpowered beings, instead. Because there was no Registration Act, Civil War never happened, meaning that One More Day never happened and Peter and Mary Jane stayed married. Eventually, they had a daughter named Annie May who developed powers as a young child, and the three of them — as Mary Jane was given a special suit that allowed Peter to share his powers with her — became a crime-fighting family, with Annie May as Spiderling, and Mary Jane as Spinneret.

What No Way Home Revealed About Maguire’s Spider-Man

Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 2002

There are two definite versions of Spider-Girl that a Spider-Girl spinoff could draw from, and both are plausible within the confines of the Sam Raimi universe. In No Way Home, when Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man are watching Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and MJ be sweet with each other, they start talking about how hard it is for a Spider-Man to be able to maintain a relationship, with Garfield's Parker not having found anyone since Gwen Stacy’s death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Maguire's Parker mentions Mary Jane, and while the full status of their current relationship isn’t revealed, he does confirm that they have gotten back together since the events of Spider-Man 3 and managed to make their relationship work in some capacity. Overall, the scenario provided is quite vague, but the fact that they are in a relationship at all is what’s important.

How A Spider-Girl Spinoff Could Work

Whether the Spider-Girl is Mayday, Annie May, or some combination of the two, a Spider-Girl spinoff of the Raimi films would be simple to pull off in theory. With seventeen years having gone by in-universe since Spider-Man 3, that’s more than enough time for Peter and Mary Jane to have had a child together. While Maguire's Spider-Man said that their relationship was complicated in No Way Home, having a daughter would undoubtedly add more stress to both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, so she could certainly be part of those complications, especially if she develops powers of her own and tries to be a superhero.

If the spinoff used Mayday, then it could draw from the Marvel Comics 2 universe and be about Mayday joining a new generation of superheroes and supervillains with her family as supporting characters. One of the principal characters in Mayday’s Spider-Girl - and the first supervillain that she had to deal with - was Normie Osborn, Harry Osborn’s son who took up the mantle of the Green Goblin to avenge his father and grandfather, which would be incredibly thematically appropriate in a story about legacies. While Harry never had a child in the Raimi films, it would be easy enough to say that he was born out of a relationship Harry kept hidden from Peter while they were feuding, and being left alone in the world after Harry’s death could even give him the motivation to try and kill the Parkers. Not only that, but with Norman Osborn alive and back in Maguire’s universe in some capacity, he could try and help Normie now that he’s been freed from the Goblin, which could provide a reason for Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn to return that could tie organically into the story.

If the spinoff used Annie May, then there are two main ways the spinoff could approach things. The first would be to draw on Renew Your Vows and have the family all fighting crime together, although it stands to reason that Peter and Mary Jane would be overprotective of Annie May and not let her help as much as she wants. For the main villain, the spinoff could use the original main villain of Renew Your Vows - Regent, who uses technology to drain superpowered beings of their powers and use them for himself. While the comic story was still focused mostly on Peter, a film adaptation could easily adapt the plot to make it more of a coming-of-age story focused on Annie May coming into her own.

Another story that could be done is a multiverse story that has Annie May as a main character. In the sequel to the original Spider-Verse story, Spider-Geddon, it was revealed that Annie May is the Patternmaker, a spider Totem who has the power to strengthen the Web of Life from which all people with spider powers across the multiverse draw their power. Both the MCU and the Sony movies have gotten more involved with the multiverse with their most recent projects, so adapting a story that ties Annie May to a major facet of the multiverse would be an easy means of tying the story to major MCU and Sony plots without having her directly appear in either franchise's main universe.

All in all, there are a lot of ways that a Spider-Girl spinoff could work. Giving Peter and Mary Jane a child would be simple enough, and from there, there’s a chance to tell a story about legacies, a coming-of-age story, or even another story about the multiverse. There are a lot of ways to make it happen, especially given the information already helpfully established in No Way Home.

More: No Way Home Perfectly Reversed MCU Spider-Man's Mentor Problem