Emma Stone Almost Worked With $307.2M Film Star in Spider-Man Series, Planned Got Failed as Sony Chopped Her Scenes Off
One of the most talented actors in the industry, Shailene Woodley, has wowed audiences with such memorable roles as Tami Oldham in Adrift, Tris from the Divergent series, and Hazel Grace Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars. She will soon be viewed in Dumb Money as Caroline Gill.
Sony Pictures The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starred Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as the leads and was set to include an actress who had impressed not only the audience but also the filmmakers, but she was ultimately cut from the film.
Shailene Woodley was finalized to play Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Actress Shailene Woodley was reportedly finalized to play the character of Mary Jane Watson in Sony Pictures’ The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which starred Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as the lead pair of the movie.
According to reports, director Marc Webb shared that Woodley’s character was written, saying that it was not going to be a large part of the movie but act like an extended cameo, which would lay the groundwork for the movies that would follow.
MJ plays the love interest of Peter Parker/Spider-Man after Gwen Stacy dies at the clock tower and the two of them begin their complicated romance, which was expected to be explored in the upcoming movies. The actress even filmed a couple of scenes in New York for the movie, but the makers decided to take a different direction.
Did Shailene Woodley’s MJ feel like a distraction from Emma Stone’s Gwen?
Reports suggested at the time that the Divergent actress who had filmed a couple of scenes for the movie in New York was left out of the movie for various reasons, but mainly it was to ensure that Peter Parker should only have eyes for Gwen Stacy played by Emma Stone.
The director shared with The Times at the time, “Shailene is a brilliant actress, and she did a great couple of days of work. But it was very difficult to introduce someone as a competing love interest when so much is on the table with Peter and Gwen.”
Webb further added that they had not anticipated what could have happened until they were filming and then editing the movie, noting that leaving Woodley’s arc out was a very hard choice. Producer Matt Tolmach further clarified why they decided to take off the footage of Woodley, “We bit off more than we could chew. We had a superhero opera, and as great as Shailene is, she didn’t really co-exist with the bigger story we were telling.”
Tolmach lastly added, “It felt like a distraction. You can’t have Peter thinking about Gwen every moment and then there’s this girl next door who’s suddenly there. We weren’t ready for it.”
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Shailene Woodley on her footage being cut off from The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The actress who was applauded by the filmmaker for her approach and skills also reacted to the decision of her footage being cut off from, Sony Pictures’ The Amazing Spider-Man 2. At the time, shared with the New York Daily News,
“Honestly, I feel like everything happens for a reason. I cannot imagine having two franchises to sort of sell and help support (Divergent and Spider-Man). I think everything turned out just exactly the way it was supposed to.”
Andrew Garfield, who played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the movie, said, “We kind of understood and realised, well, if you look at Romeo and Juliet, there’s a reason Shakespeare didn’t introduce another female character after he falls in love with Juliet.”
However, he did mention at the time that he hoped that Woodley would appear in the following movies but the franchise fizzled out and later Tom Holland took over the character of Spider-Man for Marvel Cinematic Universe with Zendaya appearing as MJ.
Source: LA Times
