It may just have been an ironic coincidence that Marc Webb got the job to reboot The Amazing Spider-Man or it may have been fate. Either way he has taken the ball and is running full steam ahead with it. In a recent interview with Movies.com the director opened up about his decision to cut love interest Mary Jane – played by Divergent star Shailene Woodley – from the sequel and also talked about his momentous transition from solely a movie director to franchise and universe builder. Be warned, some minor spoilers ahead….
According to Webb, Mary Jane was only in a few minor scenes at the beginning of the movie but that her presence did tease something flirtatious between her and Peter Pater. Webb went on to say that the main reason she was cut from the final version was because “The relationship between them [Peter and Gwen] is so sacred and so powerful, that it just didn’t feel right. And it sucks because Shailene is such a f**king great actress and so cool and magical but it was just about having this obligation to this romance that I thought was sacred. It was just one of those things.”
So will we be seeing Woodley return for the third movie? Well she’ll be heavily burdened with three more Divergent sequels over the next 2-3 years and the actress even admitted recently she was unsure about her involvement. That said Marc Webb has guaranteed us all that we’ll be seeing Mary Jane in some capacity whether Woodley signs on or not. Asked if she’ll be eventually introduced in the franchise, he answered “Oh absolutely. The question, of course, is can Peter ever love again? And that will be something that we have to address.”
A few months ago Sony officially announced spin-off movies focussing on Spidey super-villians Venom and The Sinister Six. Webb was quick to point out that the announcement didn’t negatively effect his approach to editing the finished product and in fact enhanced the opportunity for him to explore the possibility of developing new characters. He stated “Before we do a movie, we do a deep dive into the comics and make sure we have precedent for certain decisions and to find characters and moments and Ravencroft and Kafka and all of these smaller characters. There’s a way to access that. And one thing that kept coming up and one thing that I wanted to address early on was the Sinister Six. There were so many characters that deserve their time in the sun — like Venom, Carnage, Sinister Six — that in the studio they were obviously interested in developing all of that. So in ending this one I really did want to set up the Sinister Six and I was kind of shocked with how intrigued people were by it and I think the studio was too. And I think it got them excited about developing those movies. Obviously this is my movie but how it expands is a big part of what I had to do with this movie.”
Speaking of new characters, Felicity Jones popped up as Harry Osborn’s sexy assistant Felicia. Little is known of the character but she may be Felicia Hardy better known in the comics as Black Cat. Webb didn’t reveal much about her but did comment on the possibility of her and Peter hooking up in the future, “Who knows what’s going to happen with that in the future. But there are a few possibilities we’re exploring but in terms of theme, that’s certainly an interesting thing to play with.”
When discussing the differences between the sequel and the first movie Webb offered, “I wanted to embrace that surreal, mystical, massive spectacle that I loved from the comics…I wanted to embrace the humor and the playfulness of Spider-Man. That’s why we did that opening sequence that way – in the daylight, with the illustrative, bombastic version of these characters. They’re hyperbole in a way – Max Dillon with his comb-over, and Paul Giamatti being expressive – and we really asked a lot of questions about who we were making the movie for. And it kept coming back to kids. There’s this eight-year-old kid, and it sounds so sound bite-y but it’s f**king true, in all of us. There’s this kid who, when you were first exposed to Spider-Man, we wanted to try and access. That’s why there’s that kid in the last fight sequence with Rhino. We wanted to please that part of ourselves when we were playing with those bombastic villains and playful, cartoonish scenarios.”
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has grossed over $130 million worldwide since its international release two weeks ago and is due to drop in North American theaters tomorrow, May 2nd. Read our reviews here, here and here.
Gavin Logan – Follow me on Twitter
Originally published May 1, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
