Ned Leeds in the Spider-Man Films: Who He Is and Who Plays Him

Ned Leeds is Peter Parker's school friend in the Spider-Man films that star Tom Holland, and Jacob Batalon plays him in all four. The credits for Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), directed by Jon Watts, list the character simply as Ned, while Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Spider-Man: Brand New Day all credit him as Ned Leeds.

He stands beside Tom Holland's Peter Parker / Spider-Man from the first film to the latest. In Homecoming, Peter quits his school's academic team to patrol the city as Spider-Man, and his friend Ned soon learns his secret. That discovery turns Ned from a classmate into a partner, and the later films keep building on it.

Batalon is billed ninth in Spider-Man: Homecoming, seventh in Spider-Man: Far From Home, fourth in Spider-Man: No Way Home and fifth in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. If you are new to the series, those four films are the whole of Ned's screen story, so there is no earlier or later era to hunt for.

Ned's arc runs through Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, moving from learning Peter's secret to being forgotten and then reunited with him.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ned is pulled into Peter's work once he learns the secret. After Peter interrupts a weapons sale by Adrian Toomes's men, Peter and Ned study a leftover weapon and trace Herman Schultz toward Maryland, which sends Peter back to the academic team's tournament in Washington, D.C. Later, when Peter leaves the homecoming dance in his old homemade suit, he beats Schultz with Ned's help.

Spider-Man: Far From Home follows Peter's class tour of Europe, where he hopes to confess his feelings to MJ while Nick Fury drags him into the fight against the Elementals. Ned is billed seventh in the cast, and Peter spends the film trying to keep the mission secret from his friends.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is where the arc turns. Peter's identity is public, and he, MJ, Ned and May are arrested before the lawyer Matt Murdock gets the charges dropped. Their college applications are rejected because of the notoriety. When Peter's spell goes wrong and the multiverse opens, Ned frees Doctor Strange from the Mirror Dimension. Peter then asks Strange to make everyone forget him, and that includes MJ and Ned.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, begins four years after Doctor Strange's spell. Peter keeps his distance from MJ and Ned to keep them safe, and the two return to the city just as Peter's powers start changing. By the end, Peter decides he does not have to carry everything alone, and he reintroduces himself to Ned.

Ned Leeds' closest relationship is with Peter Parker (Tom Holland), and his bonds with MJ, Aunt May and others run through that friendship. He is the friend who learns the secret first, and the later films keep testing whether that trust can survive what being close to Spider-Man costs.

MJ, played by Zendaya, is the other pillar of that circle. She is credited as Michelle in Spider-Man: Homecoming and as MJ afterward, and she stands with Ned in the Spider-Man: No Way Home setup, where the public fallout hits Peter, MJ, Ned and Aunt May together. Aunt May, played by Marisa Tomei, is part of that same group when the arrests and the rejected college applications land.

Flash Thompson, played by Tony Revolori, appears in the cast alongside Ned in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, becomes part of Ned's story in Spider-Man: No Way Home, because the spell Peter asks him for sets the fallout in motion, and Ned later frees him from the Mirror Dimension.

For the central figure in this circle, the profile of Peter Parker covers him across every era, and Michelle Jones (MJ) has her own page.

No, Ned Leeds does not become Hobgoblin in the Spider-Man films; he is alive and reunited with Peter Parker at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Across all four films he is never shown as a villain.

The low point comes at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter's spell erases him from everyone's memory, so Ned has no idea who Peter is. Weeks later Peter looks in on MJ and Ned but decides not to approach them, and he starts again as a solo hero in a new suit.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day repairs the damage. Peter reintroduces himself to Ned and they share their old handshake, which rebuilds one of Peter's key friendships.

So, did Ned remember Peter Parker? Ned does not remember Peter after the spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but Peter reintroduces himself in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Ned's best moments are the Homecoming weapon investigation, helping beat Herman Schultz, freeing Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the Spider-Man: Brand New Day handshake. Together they show the films letting him be useful, and not only funny.

The weapon investigation in Spider-Man: Homecoming comes first, when Ned and Peter study a leftover weapon and trace Schultz toward Maryland. It shows the friendship working as a partnership. The night of the homecoming dance is the follow up: Peter leaves in his old homemade suit and beats Schultz with Ned's help, which is the moment the film proves Ned belongs in the story and is not only a confidant.

My pick for his most consequential beat is freeing Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home. It is a small action inside a huge film, but without it the multiverse crisis has no path to a fix.

The handshake in Spider-Man: Brand New Day closes the loop, and in my opinion it carries the most feeling. Peter has spent four years protecting people by disappearing, and when he reintroduces himself to Ned, the film pays off that loneliness with a simple, familiar gesture.