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Shailene Woodley is reflecting on the time her “dream” role as Mary Jane Watson was cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Speaking with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Conversations recently, Woodley shared her reaction to learning that her scenes with Andrew Garfield, who starred as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, had been cut from the final film. The actress said she didn’t find out until about a year after she had finished filming the scenes for the Sony Pictures movie, which was released in theaters in May 2014.
“That was a fun phone call,” she joked.
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“I was cast as Mary Jane for Spider-Man, which was my dream. Oh my god, 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!’”
The Big Little Lies star continued, “We filmed like three scenes together, me and Andrew Garfield. And then, like a year later, they were like, ‘So, you’re not in the movie anymore.’ And I was like, ‘What? What do you mean?’ And they’re like, ‘We’ve introduced a lot of new characters in this last one, and we’re going to wait for whatever happens between [Emma Stone] and Andrew [Garfield].’”
Woodley said she was told the filmmakers planned to introduce Mary Jane after Peter’s relationship with Gwen Stacy, played by Stone, came to an end.
“They were like, ‘Let’s wait for her 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,” Woodley said. “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.’”
The Hollywood Reporter reported in 2013 that Woodley’s scenes had been cut from the film. At the time, director Marc Webb said the decision was made to streamline the story and focus on Peter and Gwen’s relationship.
“Shailene is an incredibly talented actress, and while we only shot a few scenes with Mary Jane, we all love working with her,” Webb said.
Mary Jane had previously been established as Peter Parker’s main love interest in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy, with Kirsten Dunst playing the character opposite Tobey Maguire. Garfield’s iteration of the franchise instead centered on Peter’s relationship with Gwen Stacy, played by Stone. Bryce Dallas Howard also appeared as Gwen in 2007’s Spider-Man 3.
Sony ultimately shelved plans for a third Amazing Spider-Man movie following the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which underperformed compared with expectations. Garfield, meanwhile, eventually returned as Spider-Man alongside Maguire in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Garfield has previously described returning to the franchise as “really healing” and has teased that he would be open to reprising Spider-Man “if it was the right thing.”