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IIRC, in the Spider-Man: Homecoming movie, the relationship between MJ and Peter Parker is nonexistent, with the last exchange between them being:

MJ: What are you hiding, Peter? I'm just kidding. I don't care. Bye.

The sequel, Spider-Man: Far From Home starts with Peter Parker explaining to Ned his plan on how to start a relationship with MJ, with an elaborate scheme involving the trip to Europe.

Why does Peter suddenly like her so much? What happened between these two movies? Did they suddenly start to like each other in the short period of time between Homecoming and Infinity War, or after Endgame, up to the start of the Far From Home?

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    They are teenagers. Infatuations can happen so suddenly at that age
    – KharoBangdo
    Nov 12, 2019 at 8:53
  • @KharoBangdo yes, but when it comes to a movie, I think showing when, where and how such emotions began is an important part of the story
    – TK-421
    Nov 12, 2019 at 9:36
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    FWIW I think there's more of a relationship between them in the first movie than you are giving them credit for, it's just that Peter is longing after someone else and hasn't quite realised it yet. As for the mentioned quote that's just MJ's "I don't care" attitude, I wouldn't read to much into it on a relationship basis.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Nov 12, 2019 at 11:37

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Peter has always liked her and they have always been close friends per what we've seen. In fact it would even seem like MJ likes Peter in Spider-Man: Homecoming before Peter even realises he likes her back. We catch a few glimpses of her thinking about him or staring at him, like at the end of their last exchange in the first film. And a few other times she just appears to "make fun of Peter" due to something he's recently done or said which means she was probably listening in on him.

We just don't see much of their relationship because it isn't relevant to the plot of the first film and would just get in the way of things; it wasn't needed. There are also two other reasons why we don't see it develop:

  1. Peter is longing after Liz and it would only make things weird and complicated to add in the MJ angle too.
  2. The film is from Peter's perspective not MJ's.

It's also worth noting that MJ has a close guard up and plays things pretty close to her chest and portrays a "I don't care" attitude which only really drops as the pair's relationship develops in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Of course she does start to drop this guard at the end of Homecoming and that would have enabled the pair to start getting closer off screen.

Michelle Jones: Uh, thank you. My friends call me M.J.

Ned Leeds: I thought you didn’t have any friends.

Michelle Jones: I didn’t.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

We also have to consider that a lot of time passed from Homecoming to Far From Home with Liz out of the picture and MJ and Peter getting closer off screen. Homecoming takes place in 2017 and Far From Home probably takes place in 2023. Now both were snapped in 2018 and Far From Home starts not long after Endgame ends. Even so that's at least a year off screen that the pair have had together that we have not seen. It's irrelevant detail of the two getting closer that wasn't really needed and so was skipped. Remember the MCU also skips the Spider-Man origin story with Uncle Ben's death because it was done too much recently so also probably why large parts of the MJ/Peter beginnings are cut out.

However, of course things are referenced in Far From Home when Peter is telling Ned about his plans for the trip with MJ. This short sentence gives a hint at what has been happening with the two in the time gap.

Peter Parker: Okay, sure, but... I really like MJ, man. Okay? She’s awesome, she’s funny in a sort of dork way, and sometimes I catch her looking at me, and I feel stood up... Wait. Dude, she’s coming now. Just don’t say anything.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

In short it makes perfect sense anyway but a lot of the boring, awkward middle bits of their relationship are cut out because it wasn't needed for the films.

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You know how teenagers are. Boys like every single girl who is out of their league. (And writing a story about how they meet and fall for each other is just romantic movie genre 101.)

But, in this particular movie, these characters are based on comic book characters. So most of the people who watch/going to watch are aware about the romantic relationship between Peter Parker and Mary Jane. And they anticipate that Peter and MJ will definitely fall for each other. Script writers are aware about this situation and they are toying with this idea of getting them together.

But as the Russo brothers always say: no movie will have the same story as comics. So who knows, may be you will see MJ die next movie. Or Peter and MJ will be couple as they destined to be (as anticipated).

Conclusion: They are messing with you!

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  • Indeed that's why it's not revealed that MJ's initials are MJ until the end of Homecoming (once Liz is out of the picture).
    – OrangeDog
    Nov 13, 2019 at 11:13
  • FWIW MJ in the MCU is not Mary Jane but rather Michelle Jones.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Nov 13, 2019 at 11:14
  • And of course the Russos have no involvement in the Spider-Man part of the MCU so their word isn't too meaningful here.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Nov 13, 2019 at 11:17
  • I understand how life works and so on. What I care about is an in-universe answer, because now I think it is very lazy and incoherent from the writers to base one of the most important part of the story only on the fact, that people should now PP + MJ = <3. It's just bad moviemaking
    – TK-421
    Nov 13, 2019 at 12:31
  • You want to say highest earning/most successful movie franchise of all time are making bad movies ??
    – HungryCoucher
    Nov 15, 2019 at 0:40

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