Spider-Man: Brand New Day introduces a handful of new characters, and most of them have names that are spoken in dialogue. There is one person in the movie, however, whose name is never said aloud, even though he has a pretty important role in the story. It turns out he might also be a pretty big, albeit reviled, figure in the Spider-Man extended universe.
After the events of No Way Home erased Peter Parker from everyone’s memory, his girlfriend MJ moves on and starts a new life, which includes finding a new boyfriend played by Ahsoka actor Eman Esfandi. MJ says this new boy toy feels that she is “withholding” in the relationship, but beyond one scene we don’t see much of this guy in the movie. He has just enough impact to send Peter on an emotional downward spiral when he sees him and MJ kiss at a houseparty. The movie’s credits simply call him “The Boyfriend,” and no one ever actually calls him anything else. However, folks who have seen the movie with closed captions are reporting that the movie’s subtitles do give him a name: Paul.
For those who haven’t kept up with the Spider-Man comics, Paul Rabin is a character that is pretty universally hated in the Marvel fandom. He’s Mary Jane Watson’s long-time boyfriend after she and Peter broke up in the comics, and while MJ and Paul broke things off eventually, Marvel wasn’t content to let him go quietly into the night and also killed him off. Fans were thrilled that this obnoxious obstacle between Peter and MJ was dealt with, but now it looks like a different subset of the Marvel fandom is about to be dealing with him for a bit.
By the end of Brand New Day, MJ and Peter are at least friends, and MJ acknowledges that they might have had a relationship before Doctor Strange’s magical mind wipe, but she doesn’t have those memories or feelings any longer. Fans are debating whether or not Jean Grey may have unknowingly rattled the minds of MJ and Peter’s best friend Ned and shook some of those hidden memories loose, as MJ is seen holding a necklace Peter got her while sitting on a roof they used to hang out on before everything changed. Whatever the case, there will likely be some fallout to all this in the next Spider-Man movie, and it’s entirely possible Paul will be a part of it and actually get named on screen, though I doubt MCU fans will be any more receptive to a rival for MJ’s love than comic book fans have been.
