Tom Holland’s Spider-Man franchise couldn’t be in a better place these days. Its latest movie, Brand New Day, has become the highest-grossing 2026 movie release in the world, and fans love it, too! But, there was a time when Sony was having Spidey troubles, and sadly Shailene Woodley’s cut role as Mary Jane Watson was a casualty. The actress just talked about what happened exactly with her Amazing Spider-Man past.
If you were following along with The Amazing Spider-Man movies back in the early 2010s, you probably know Woodley was cast as Mary Jane Watson. She was even seen on the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (red hair and all) filming a scene with Andrew Garfield. But, it never made it to the big screen. Here’s how things went down, per Woodley:
We shot it. That was a fun phone call. I was cast as Mary Jane for Spider-Man, which was my dream because I really — Oh my God, Spider-Man's my favorite superhero. Mary Jane was my favourite character growing up. So, when I got it, I was like, 'This is so exciting.' And then we filmed like three scenes together, me and Andrew Garfield.
Whoa, three scenes! That’s rather sizable. Woodley reflected on the Spider-Man role that got away during a career retrospective with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. As she added:
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?' 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 [Gwen Stacy] to die, and then we’ll introduce Mary Jane,' which made sense. But then they didn’t make that film.
Woodley was 21 years old at the time, and had recently had awards buzz for her role in The Descendants with George Clooney. The movie earned her a meeting with The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb, which led to her booking the role of MJ. However, ultimately, it was apparently decided that they wouldn’t introduce Peter Parker’s new love interest so soon after Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy dies in TASM2 until the planned third movie.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 left a lot of unresolved things, which never had the chance to be explored. Sony scrapped The Amazing Spider-Man 3 back in February 2015. A few months later, Tom Holland was cast as Spider-Man and the character joined the MCU. Woodley also said this about her cut role:
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.'
Based on what we know about the fall of Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man and the rise of Tom Holland’s version had very little to do with the actors part of them. At the time, Sony initially hoped to launch an expanded universe to compete with the MCU that involved Spider-Man spinoff films. After TASM2 wasn’t well received, it instead led to a deal between Sony and Marvel Studios.
Ultimately, Andrew Garfield had the chance to return to the role of Spider-Man for 2021’s No Way Home alongside Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland. As for Shailene Woodley, Mary Jane Watson role, we’ll always wonder what that could have been like. Where’s the justice for her?
