SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Jean Grey Theory Changes Everything About MJ and Ned's Peter Parker Memories

One of the biggest questions left hanging after the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Daymight've been answered in a way that a lot of fans completely overlooked.

If you've already seen the movie, you've probably been wondering how MJ and Ned might remember Peter Parker after Spider-Man: No Way Home erased the world's memory of him.

The movie never spells it out, but I can't help thinking there's a really fun explanation hiding in plain sight, and it actually goes back to an X-Men movie that came out almost a decade ago.

It all comes down to Jean Grey. We've already seen Jean restore lost memories before. In X-Men: Apocalypse, she places her hand on Logan's head and tells Scott, "Just gave him back a piece of his past."

In that moment, Jean uses her telepathic abilities to return fragments of Wolverine's erased memories through direct psychic contact.

After watching Brand New Day again for a second time, I couldn't shake the feeling that the movie was recreating that exact idea.

Earlier in the film, Jean takes control of MJ's body, giving her direct psychic access to MJ's mind. She also spends a significant amount of time inside Peter Parker's mind, where she experiences some of his most personal memories, including the heartbreaking death of Aunt May.

That puts Jean in an interesting position. Then there's the psychic bubble sequence. Everyone caught inside that radius, including MJ and Ned, becomes trapped while Jean is controlling the entire situation.

If she's already inside Peter's mind and has access to all of his memories involving MJ and Ned, it seems completely possible that those memories could've been transferred, intentionally or otherwise.

The movie even seems to leave behind a couple of visual hints that something happened during that encounter.

While frozen inside Jean's psychic field, MJ suddenly begins crying. Later, she's sitting alone on a rooftop wearing the Black Dahlia necklace Peter gave her in Spider-Man: Far From Home, smiling as if something deep inside her has resurfaced.

Ned also has an interesting reaction during the handshake scene that feels like there's more going on beneath the surface than either of them understands.

Taken together, those moments make me wonder if Jean restored pieces of their forgotten past the same way the other version of the character once helped Logan recover his.

It lines up surprisingly well with what we already know about Jean's abilities. So giving MJ and Ned access to pieces of what Doctor Strange's spell took away doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

Of course, I have no idea if that's actually what happened. The movie never confirms it, and maybe Marvel has a completely different explanation planned.

But I'd like to think this is exactly how it played out. It would be such a great outcome for Peter Parker if his two best friends found their way back to him because of Jean Grey's powers.

After everything Peter has sacrificed over the past few movies, seeing MJ and Ned remember the life they shared with him would be an incredibly satisfying payoff.

Whether this theory ends up being right or completely off the mark, it's a fun connection that fits remarkably well with Jean's established abilities. If Marvel intended fans to pick up on those parallels, it's a pretty clever callback.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters, and if you've seen it, I'd love to know whether you think Jean Grey may have been responsible for bringing Peter's friends' memories back.