[This story contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.]
How many of Zendaya‘s characters are going to die onscreen this year? Well, fans are speculating that her Spider-Man: Brand New Day character is also going to be taking an early trip to the grave, only a few months after Euphoria‘s Rue and a couple of weeks after The Odyssey‘s Athena.
These rumors started when fans picked up on Zendaya consistently wearing dark ensembles during the global press tour for the fourth film in the Tom Holland-led franchise. And the actress and her famed stylist, Law Roach, are known to put a lot of thought into her promotional looks, being modern pioneers of “method dressing.”
As has become a tradition with all of her press tours, fans eagerly await each of her premiere looks to drop and Brand New Day was no different. The actress already knows how to channel her Spidey-senses on a red carpet, often including spider-themed motifs and accessories in her looks, but her loyal fans also noticed her nearly all-black trend this time around. This led to speculation across social media that the actress was hinting at her character MJ’s potential death in the new film.
The only exceptions to Black were when Zendaya wore an ivory Tamara Ralph gown to the London premiere, and a white and black Atelier Versace gown to the premiere in Shanghai, China. However, the latter only solidified the rumors for fans, as the color white has long been associated with mourning in Chinese traditions.
Zendaya on the press tour for ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day.’
Amy Sussman/Getty Images; VCG/VCG via Getty Images; Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images; Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
This wouldn’t be the first time that an actor used a project’s promotional run as an opportunity to mourn a character — Millie Bobby Brown did it last year for her Stranger Things character Eleven, who died in the season five finale. “I wore black the whole press tour because I was mourning her,” Brown told Jimmy Fallon earlier this year.
For those who weren’t fully convinced by the MJ death rumors, other fans also started speculating that Peter Parker’s love could be transforming into Venom in Brand New Day. That’s because in Al Ewing and Carlos Gómez’s Marvel comic book series All-New Venom, MJ is revealed as Venom’s new host.
Some then thought Roach spoiled this when he told Variety at the Los Angeles premiere that her edgy black Ashi Studio dress was an “abstract way to present the spider. You know, in our minds, this metamorphosis of this woman into this thing.”
Now that Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been released in theaters, it’s finally been revealed that, fortunately for Zendaya’s character but unfortunately for the internet, MJ does not die or transform into Venom in Brand New Day, meaning all those speculations were wrong.
Though the actress never directly stated the hidden meaning behind her looks during her press run, she also never shut down the death rumors, letting people on social media do what they’re good at and run wild.
When the Associated Press asked Zendaya at the L.A. premiere whether she was telling MJ’s story through her press tour costuming, she cryptically replied, “I think you just have to go to the movie and see for yourself.” She added, “Of course we love to play the very vivid storytelling. We just like to have fun and extend that storytelling through the press tour.”
She also previously told Onic Entertainment that audiences should get ready to cry when watching the new film, saying she “cried multiple times.”
Eyes will next be locked in on Zendaya’s looks for the Dune: Part Three press tour in December, which sees the actress reprise her role as Chani, but fans are also already looking at her big project next year. Since she’ll be playing Felicia, the teenage daughter of Shrek and Fiona, in Shrek 5, they’re already predicting Roach might style her in “swamp-core” couture… whatever that means.
