Kirsten Dunst Wants Spider-Man 4 to Go Chronicle-Style With Tobey Maguire
Kirsten Dunst is stoking Spider-Man nostalgia, hinting that the Mary Jane–Peter Parker romance that defined the 2000s might not be finished. In a fresh interview, the Civil War star dropped a tantalizing tease that has fans dreaming of a web-slinging reunion.
Spider-Man nostalgia is having a moment again. Kirsten Dunst is talking about Mary Jane like the door never fully closed, a Batman writer wants to take a swing at a Tobey-era Spider-Man 4, and the rumor mill is convinced Tobey Maguire and Hugh Jackman are crossing paths in an Avengers movie. A lot! Let’s unpack it.
Quick version
- Kirsten Dunst told GQ in April 2024 she would have returned for Spider-Man: No Way Home if asked, says she still carries Mary Jane with her, and even pitched a smaller, weirder reunion with Tobey Maguire.
- Writer Mattson Tomlin (co-writer of The Batman) tweeted in 2025 that he wants to write a Spider-Man 4 centered on Tobey’s Peter juggling being a husband and a father. He later said progress is slow but he has not been told no. He is also co-writing The Batman 2, tentatively dated October 1, 2027, with Matt Reeves directing.
- Industry insiders say Tobey’s Spider-Man and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine show up in Avengers: Doomsday, reportedly dated December 18, 2026. A viral set photo was confirmed to be AI, but the chatter about their appearances persists, with notes about Tobey’s suit being motion capture and some scenes filmed separately. None of this is officially confirmed.
Kirsten Dunst still has MJ on the brain
In an April 2024 GQ chat, Dunst — fresh off Alex Garland’s Civil War — was asked if she was ever supposed to pop up in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The movie brought back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield alongside Tom Holland’s MCU Peter, but no Mary Jane. Dunst said she would have come back if anyone had picked up the phone, and that she still feels connected to M.J. She also sounded very into revisiting that chemistry with Maguire, just not necessarily in a giant studio way.
"It would be funny to be like, OK, let’s take Tobey and I and do it in a weird indie way where it’s like a different kind of superhero film. Like how they did that movie Chronicle. It could be cool."
She was talking about Chronicle, the 2012 found-footage superpowers movie with Dane DeHaan and Michael B. Jordan. Dunst also called the early-2000s Sam Raimi run an "innocent" time and said working with Raimi, a cult-favorite director, felt like making an indie disguised as a superhero movie. Translation: those films were standalone, before shared-universe homework and rigid timelines were the norm.
A Spider-Man 4 idea that leans into Peter as a dad
Mattson Tomlin — who co-wrote Matt Reeves’s The Batman — has been very public about the Tobey itch too. On July 31, 2025, he tweeted that his dream project right now would be writing a Spider-Man 4 where Maguire’s Peter is navigating life as a husband and father, balancing three fronts at once. He added that, given the last eight Spider-Man films, that fatherhood angle is where he gravitates.
When someone asked for an update on October 26, 2025, he kept expectations grounded: slow and steady, tons of moving parts, lots of politics, nothing to announce for a long time (if ever), but he has not gotten a "no" yet. In the meantime, Tomlin is busy co-writing The Batman 2 with Reeves, which currently has a tentative October 1, 2027 date.
About that Tobey-and-Wolverine team-up rumor
Recently, an AI-generated image claiming to show Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man on the set of a Marvel movie called Avengers: Doomsday made the rounds. The Direct flagged the image making the social media circuit, and insider Alex Perez said flat-out that the picture is fake — but also claimed the two characters are in the movie. He added a couple of very nerdy details: he has heard Tobey’s suit is mo-cap, and that many of these big cameo appearances are filmed separately, likely for secrecy and scheduling.
Another scooper, Daniel Richtman, has echoed that the original Wolverine and Spider-Man will appear in Avengers: Doomsday. Again, this is insider chatter, not Marvel-official. For what it is worth, the film is currently pegged to December 18, 2026.
The takeaway
Dunst is game, Tomlin has a pitch, and rumor-watchers are already mapping out a multiverse victory lap with Tobey and Jackman. Whether it all actually congeals into something real is the part nobody can promise yet — but the appetite is clearly there, on both sides of the camera.