Warning – Major spoilers for the ending of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 follow. If you’re yet to see the movie, you should turn back now…
We’ve already heard a few comments from director Marc Webb about the shocking climax to Sony’s superhero sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2 [read his thoughts here], as Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man fails to save his true love Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) from falling to her death during the climactic final battle with the Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan). Well, now stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and producer Matt Tolmach have shared their thoughts on ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died’ during an interview with ComicBookResources.
“I knew from the very beginning what the intention was for Gwen’s arc,” said Stone regarding the death of her character. “I thought it was executed well.”
“It’s a defining moment in the comics, and not just in the Spider-Man comics, but in comic book history,” states Garfield. “It’s a fact that we lose people. People die. Death is strangely a part of life. You can’t have life without death. It’s an amazing thing, and a shocking thing, for audiences of these types of films to witness. Especially with such a beloved character… I think it’s incredibly bold and incredibly necessary, to keep pushing the envelopes and the boundaries of what these movies can contain. There’s a tendency to want to be safe, and a tendency to want to please everybody, and to not ruffle any feathers. There are so many of these movies out, so how do we make sure this one stands out and needs to be seen? We can go and see Captain America and The Avengers and Superman and whatever — but what is it about this film?”
“I think the love story we’ve created between Gwen and Peter is very authentic and very deep,” Garfield continues. “It tugs the heartstrings because it’s truthful. How do we subvert that? I think it’s one of the strongest parts of that first film, the love story. So I think it’s very interesting to subvert it, and to explore where Peter goes from here. You have to give it complete, fair credence, because it’s huge, this post-traumatic stress,” said Garfield. “It’s huge, genuine PTSD for Peter Parker. How is he going to continue fighting? How is he going to continue loving? Will he ever be able to love again? Will he be able to have any personal relationships in his life ever again? What does it do to his power, his ability to fight, his compassion as a human being? These are all the big questions that I’m starting to ask about where we go next.”
And Tolmach weighed in on the decision to include Gwen Stacy in the rebooted Spider-Man using, stating that it was inevitable that the character would meet a tragic end: “When you decide that you’re going to tell the Gwen Stacy story, you know you’re going to end up there. You just try to put it off for a little while, because you don’t want to lose Emma. You don’t want to lose Gwen. You don’t want to lose that dynamic. But these movies are all about Peter Parker and his journey in life and as Spider-Man. You’re constantly having to turn the screws on him. This was a movie that, on many levels, is about hope. What’s the best way to convey that? It’s easy if you make a movie about someone who is doing pretty well, but your message of hope is going to fall kind of flat. You want to make a movie about someone who is brought to their knees, and they’re able to find hope in the end. That’s inspiring and challenging.”
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is out now with a cast that includes Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker), Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), Sally Field (Aunt May), Chris Zylka (Flash Thompson), Campbell Scott (Richard Parker), Embeth Davidtz (Mary Parker), Martin Sheen (Ben Parker) and Denis Leary (George Stacy) alongside new additions Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) as Electro, Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) as Harry Osborn, Paul Giamatti (12 Years a Slave) as The Rhino, Chris Cooper (American Beauty) as Norman Osborn, Colm Feore (Thor) as Donald Menken, Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) as Felicia Hardy, Marton Csokas (The Lord of the Rings) as Dr. Kafka, and B.J. Novak (The Office) as Alistair Smythe. Read our reviews here, here and here.
Originally published May 6, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
