Shailene Woodley reveals why Mary Jane scenes were cut from ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’

Shailene Woodley has revisited one of the more intriguing casting decisions surrounding 2014’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”, revealing that she learned about a year after filming that all her scenes as Mary Jane Watson had been removed from the movie.

Speaking during a recent SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations interview, Woodley said playing Mary Jane had been a dream role because Spider-Man was her favourite superhero growing up and Mary Jane her favourite character. She filmed around three scenes alongside Andrew Garfield, who played Peter Parker, before receiving the unexpected news that she would not appear in the finished film.

Woodley recalled being told that the sequel was already introducing several new characters and that filmmakers wanted to concentrate on Peter’s relationship with Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone, rather than bring another potential romantic interest into the story. The intention was to introduce Mary Jane after Gwen’s storyline concluded and develop the character in the planned third film.

That opportunity never arrived. Sony subsequently abandoned “The Amazing Spider-Man 3”, leaving Woodley’s version of Mary Jane unseen.

‘We introduced a lot of new characters’

Woodley said she was surprised when she received the call informing her of the decision. The explanation given to her was that the filmmakers wanted to wait until after Gwen’s death before introducing Mary Jane.

She acknowledged that the reasoning made narrative sense, although she jokingly conceded that she could not know whether it was the complete explanation, suggesting her performance might simply have been bad.

Contemporary comments from the filmmakers, however, support the explanation Woodley says she received. Director Marc Webb said in 2014 that removing Mary Jane was a creative decision intended to streamline the film and preserve its emotional focus on Peter and Gwen.

Webb said introducing a character audiences already knew could become Peter’s romantic partner risked distracting from the central relationship. Producer Matt Tolmach similarly acknowledged at the time that the production had attempted to accommodate too much material, with the screenplay at one stage running to 148 pages.

Mary Jane was intended for third film

Woodley’s role was relatively small rather than a fully developed subplot. Her scenes were intended to establish Mary Jane as Peter’s neighbour and lay the groundwork for a larger presence later in the franchise.

The decision to remove her therefore initially amounted to a postponement rather than the abandonment of the character. Webb publicly indicated at the time that Mary Jane was expected to appear in a future instalment.

But plans for the Garfield-led franchise changed following “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”. Sony ultimately did not make the proposed third movie, and the studio later entered into an agreement that brought Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Tom Holland taking over as Peter Parker.

Garfield eventually returned to the character seven years later in 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, appearing alongside Holland and Tobey Maguire.

Woodley says role had been a ‘dream’

For Woodley, losing the part carried particular significance because of her childhood attachment to the character. She was emerging as a major Hollywood star when she was cast, following acclaimed performances in “The Descendants” and “The Spectacular Now” and ahead of the “Divergent” films and “The Fault in Our Stars”.

More than a decade later, her account provides additional context to a decision that had generated considerable discussion among Spider-Man fans when photographs of Woodley filming as Mary Jane emerged despite her absence from the final movie.

The actress has since built a wide-ranging film and television career, including “Big Little Lies”, “Snowden”, “Adrift” and “Dumb Money”. Her Mary Jane, however, remains one of the more notable superhero performances filmed but never officially seen — the casualty of a sequel that was supposed to introduce her properly but was ultimately never made.