How Shailene Woodley Feels About Being Cut As Mary Jane From The Amazing Spider-Man 2

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" ended its short-lived franchise, including plans for not only further adventures of Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker but many spin-off films as well. One plan was actually cut before the movie even hit theaters. 

You may remember that actress Shailene Woodley was cast as Mary Jane Watson, set to appear so she could take over as Peter's love interest following the death of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter in August 2026, Woodley described MJ as "her dream [role]." She continued: "Spider-Man's my favorite superhero; Mary Jane was my favorite character growing up. So, when I got it, I was like, 'This is so exciting!'"

Woodley was born in 1991, so she was the right age to grow up on the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man" movies. However, you probably already know that Woodley's MJ was nowhere to be seen in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." As director Marc Webb told THR before the film's release: "I made a creative decision to streamline the story and focus on Peter and Gwen and their relationship. Shailene is an incredibly talented actress, and while we only shot a few scenes with Mary Jane, we all love working with her."

Woodley found out she was being cut via phone call: "They were like, 'Let's wait for [Gwen] to die, and then we'll introduce Mary Jane.' Which made sense, but then they didn't make that film. So, there was no reintroduction. That's what I was told, but again, who knows what the truth is? I could have been terrible, and they were like, 'We can't do this.'"

Indeed, Woodley told Vanity Fair back in 2014 her first worry was, "Oh, my God, was I awful?"

The deleted scenes featuring MJ have never been officially released, but recordings of these scenes being filmed have shown up online. One shows her talking to Peter outside his house, and another shows her having a chance meeting with Gwen. Concept artist Gregory Hill shed further light (via Spider-Man News) on MJ's intended role: She was Peter's new next door neighbor, and lived with an abusive father. Peter, who noticed this, would confront MJ's dad as Spider-Man and threaten him into treating his daughter better.

If you followed the production of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" like I did, then you remember how, even with MJ being cut, she telegraphed the movie's intentions. In the "Spider-Man" comics, Gwen was Peter's first love, and he only fell for MJ after Gwen's murder. Why would the movies introduce MJ unless they planned to follow this path? Sure enough, Gwen dies at the end of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," murdered by Harry Osborn/The Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan). The movie even moves her death scene from the George Washington Bridge to a clocktower, underlining that Gwen's time is up.

But in honoring the "Spider-Man" comics by killing Gwen, did "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" only shoot itself in the foot? For one, despite Peter ultimately returning to being Spider-Man after remembering some words from Gwen, killing the female lead ended the movie on a downer note. Plus, killing a female character just to make a man angsty felt much more exploitative in 2014 than it had in 1973.

The Peter-Gwen relationship was also the one part of both "Amazing Spider-Man" movies that most people agreed was working well. (Remember, Garfield and Stone's chemistry was so good they dated in real life for a time).

The late Gerry Conway, the comic writer who wrote Gwen's death, always said he killed Gwen because the character was a wet blanket, "a pretty face" lacking in much depth. A more compelling love interest for Peter — Mary Jane — was standing there underused. Conversely, in 2014, Conway wrote on Twitter that: "If the Gwen Stacy of the comics had been more like Emma Stone, she'd have been MJ."

While Emma Stone's Gwen had the original Gwen's interest in science, she otherwise had little in common with the source material. In the comics, Gwen didn't like Spider-Man (hence Peter never admitting his secret to her), whereas in the movies she's Peter's confidant; she even directly helps Spider-Man beat Electro (Jamie Foxx). (Truth be told, Stone's Gwen is most like Mary Jane from Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley's "Ultimate Spider-Man," who learns Peter's secret identity in issue #13 and spends the rest of the series helping him.)

Since "The Amazing Spider-Man" made the Peter-Gwen romance so much stronger, it removed the substantive reason to replace Gwen with MJ — but it still tried to follow through. Shailene Woodley is a great actress, and I'm confident she could bring a similar romantic chemistry opposite Andrew Garfield that Emma Stone had. But would fans have been receptive to MJ replacing Gwen this time, especially without the small part in "2" to get to know her? 

That's assuming Woodley would've even come back. In a 2014 interview, Marc Webb said he still wanted to introduce MJ, and explore how Peter could learn to love again, but he was unsure if Woodley's schedule would work out. Like a lot of things about "The Amazing Spider-Man 3," we'll never know for sure.