Shailene Woodley Reveals Why Her Mary Jane Was Cut From THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
Shailene Woodley actually made it all the way to the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Mary Jane Watson, filmed scenes opposite Andrew Garfield, and then vanished from the movie completely.
Woodley’s deleted Mary Jane role has been one of the more interesting pieces of Spider-Man movie trivia, especially since her casting suggested Sony had bigger plans for the character.
Woodley has now talked about what happened, explaining that the decision came down to Gwen Stacy’s tragic story and the awkward timing of introducing Peter Parker’s next major love interest.
During a career retrospective with SAG-AFTRA, Woodley recalled just how excited she was when she landed the part. Spider-Man was already her favorite superhero, while Mary Jane had been a character she loved since childhood.
"I was cast as Mary Jane for [The Amazing Spider-Man 2], which was my dream because Spider-Man's my favorite hero. Mary Jane was my favorite character growing up. When I got it, I was like, 'This is so exciting.' We filmed like three scenes together, me and Andrew Garfield."
Woodley’s Mary Jane was originally positioned to enter Peter Parker’s world during The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The sequel already had plenty going on, with Garfield’s Spider-Man dealing with Jamie Foxx as Electro and Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn, who eventually becomes the Green Goblin.
Then there was Gwen Stacy. Emma Stone returned as Gwen, and the movie adapted one of the most famous tragedies in Spider-Man history with her death during the final battle.
Adding Mary Jane into that same story created a problem. The filmmakers ultimately decided Peter losing Gwen and meeting another iconic love interest in the same movie didn’t work. Woodley said she learned about the change roughly a year after filming her scenes.
"Then a year later they were like, 'So, you're not in the movie anymore. We've introduced a lot of new characters in this last one… let's wait for [Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy] to die and then we'll introduce Mary Jane.
“Which made sense, but then they didn't make [The Amazing Spider-Man 3]. They thought it would be weird to introduce a new love interest."
Rather than squeeze Mary Jane into an already crowded sequel and have her waiting in the wings while Gwen’s story reached its heartbreaking conclusion, the idea was to save Woodley’s character for The Amazing Spider-Man 3.
Of course, that created a much bigger problem when The Amazing Spider-Man 3 never happened.
Sony had plans to keep Garfield’s Spider-Man universe going, and the abandoned third film remains one of the franchise’s biggest "what could have been" projects. Woodley’s Mary Jane wasn’t the only piece of future storytelling removed from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, either.
Another deleted sequence involved a post-credits appearance featuring Norman Osborn’s head in a box, teasing some seriously strange possibilities for what the next chapter might have brought to the table.
Instead, Sony moved away from Garfield’s version of Spider-Man, leaving Mary Jane and several other story threads stranded. Woodley had landed a character she’d dreamed of playing, shot her scenes, and was positioned for a larger role in the next movie, only for the entire continuation to disappear.
Garfield eventually got another shot at Peter Parker when he returned alongside Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man: No Way Home. His comeback also gave his version of Peter some emotional closure, particularly when he saved MJ from a fall that painfully echoed Gwen Stacy’s death.
Holland, meanwhile, has continued carrying the live-action Spider-Man franchise forward, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day, while Garfield’s unfinished Amazing Spider-Man story continues to generate plenty of discussion among fans.
Unfortunately for Woodley, Mary Jane, and fans curious about where Garfield’s Spider-Man story was headed, the movie that was supposed to introduce her properly never made it to the screen.