The Amazing Spider-Man 2 already had plenty on its plate, juggling multiple villains, storylines, and characters, but it was originally even more crowded, with Shailene Woodley appearing as Mary Jane Watson. Woodley’s scenes were ultimately left on the cutting-room floor, though the plan was for her to return in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Of course, that sequel never happened either.
Shailene Woodley on Amazing Spider-Man 3
“We shot it. That was a fun phone call,” Woodley said in a SAG-AFTRA Foundation interview. “I was cast as Mary Jane for ‘Spider-Man,’ which was my dream because I really—oh my God, Spider-Man’s my favourite superhero. Mary Jane was my favourite character growing up. So, when I got it, I was like, ‘This is so exciting.’“
Woodley said she shot three scenes with Andrew Garfield, but nearly a year later, she got a call that broke the news she was no longer in the movie. “They were like, ‘So, you’re not in the movie anymore.’ And I was like, ‘What? What do you mean?’” she said. “They were like, ‘We’ve introduced a lot of new characters in this last one, and we’re going to wait for Emma Stone’s—like, whatever happens between her and Andrew.’ 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.“
She continued, “They thought it would be weird to introduce a new love interest. Well, that’s what I was told, you know, but again, who knows what the truth is? I could have been terrible, and they’re like, ‘We can’t do this.’“
In addition to Mary Jane, other elements that wound up on the cutting room floor included Norman Osborn’s decapitated head in a jar, Richard Parker revealing he was still alive after faking his death, and more. At the end of the day, the franchise was rebooted yet again, although we did eventually get to see Garfield reprise his role in Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire.
Motor City
Woodley was recently seen starring alongside Alan Ritchson and Ben Foster in Motor City, a largely dialogue-free action that our own Chris Bumbray loved. “The action is ferocious, with an especially good mano-a-mano fight between Ritchson and co-star Pablo Schreiber (who plays a crooked cop) serving as the action highlight,” he wrote. “The cast is strong, with Woodley bringing humanity to a role that could have easily been a simple femme fatale part. Nor is she too innocent, for that matter, quickly taking up with Foster the minute her man gets put away.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
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