Find a friendship that’s as special as Ned Leeds and Peter Parker’s. Well, that was true until the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home. In case you missed it – or forgot what happened – Doctor Strange erased everyone’s memories of Peter. It’s as if he never existed.
While Spider-Man: Brand New Day undoubtedly showcases Peter’s loneliness, it’s even more tragic for Ned. It’s clear from the movies that Ned and Peter have been attached at the hip since they were kids. They also didn’t seem like they had many friends until later in their lives, which makes their friendship that much more important in hindsight. They were there for each other – through the good and bad – knowing that there’s somebody out there who has their back all the time.
While Peter retains the memories of their friendship, Ned doesn’t. Logically, this means there’s a giant hole in his past that he can’t recall. For all intents and purposes, he never had a best friend at all. He was completely alone. There are major consequences here, especially if those precious life experiences and memories are no longer present in his mind.
According to a study: “Young adults who had no childhood friends had higher odds of psychological difficulties than those with at least one friend: Social relations early in life may have consequences for adult psychological well-being.”
There are two questions in this regard. One, who is Ned now? And two, are those traits from his friendship with Peter still present in him somehow? While it’s entirely possible he’s still the same kind and loyal person he was before, it’s possible that Strange’s spell could have altered his brain chemistry and turned him into somebody else. Perhaps the loneliness and lack of a friend made him more cynical toward the world around him. Maybe it could have even pushed him down a darker path.
Considering the fact that the rumors won’t go away that the MCU’s Ned will turn into the Hobgoblin like his comic book counterpart at some point, this could be the best way to introduce this twist, since it gives him a legitimate and believable motive for becoming a villain. It’s already impossible for the movie version of Ned’s Hobgoblin to have the same origin story as the one from the Marvel Comics, but this could be the solution to provide a compelling enough reason for Ned to break bad in this universe.
More importantly, this would cause turmoil in Peter, since he’d feel responsible for what Ned becomes – and create an even greater connection (and conflict) between Spider-Man and Hobgoblin. Peter is someone who’s constantly consumed by guilt and what-ifs, so this plays nicely into his character arc. After all, he didn’t really give Ned a chance to make his choice. Peter just thought it would be best if everybody forgot about him and that was that. If somehow his choice results in Ned’s life taking a drastic turn, you know that he’ll regret his actions.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day focuses on the effects of Peter’s decision and how it uproots his life for the greater good, but let’s not forget who may have suffered the greatest loss of all: Ned. Just imagine you forgot your childhood best friend. What would that do to who you are now?
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, and the official Spidey Tracker, the in-universe app built by Ned himself, includes a “Web Watch” feature cataloging every villain Spider-Man has faced, with Ned billed as its “CEO and Founder.”
