That isn't funny.
It is kind of funny.
Help.
Spider-man is an enduring icon.
Beloved for close to 70 years.
Throughout that time, he's had a wide reaching cast
of supporting characters, villains, and rivals.
And yet, none of them have even come
close to matching Mary Jane Watson.
Which makes it all the more surprising
when you find out that not only were
there plans to include the iconic redheaded bombshell
in the Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man films,
but they literally wrote scenes for her, cast her, and shot
them, only for her to get cut out of the finished
film at the last second.
Well, see you.
After the somewhat bumpy dismount of Spider-Man 3,
Sony was looking to continue producing spider-man films.
The only question was, how?
How could they give people more spider-man,
and yet distance themselves from the not well received
most recent version of New York's favorite orphan son?
How would they reposition Spidey to make
sure he appealed to the younger demographic that was
key to the character's success?
How would they build a vehicle with enough internal momentum
to escape the shadow of one of the most iconic superhero
franchises in history?
Simple.
They just needed something amazing.
You- you are amazing.
I can tell you that.
You are amazing.
Thank you, yeah.
Will you say it?
No, I kind of needed to hear that.
They had a release date of November 11th, 2012
before they had a script, so they had to work quickly.
The North Star given to the creative team
was to make something that felt like spider-man,
but was tailored to a modern audience.
Gone was the science nerd being picked on
by Flash Thompson Peter Parker.
Here, was a hot topic outsider Peter Parker.
The film pulled in close to $757 million,
making it a resounding success.
Production on a sequel was quickly initiated.
Mark Webb and budding movie star Andrew Garfield
were brought back, and the script
was being tailored to launch a much wider Cinematic
Universe for spider-man.
A virtual army of writers were involved
in the development of Amazing Spider-Man 2
with Alex Kurtzman Robert Orci and Jeff Pinkner
being some of the key figures.
Simultaneously to launching this film,
Sony started to unfold a master plan for themselves.
Attempting to compete with the rapidly expanding Marvel
Cinematic Universe, they wanted to do a wild pack
movie, a Sinister Six movie, maybe a Venom movie.
And potentially even a Black Cat movie.
However, Amazing Spider-Man 2 needed
to lay the groundwork for all of this.
They had tangible proof that people
loved this new skateboarding version of Peter Parker,
so they wanted to use him as the launching
pad for multiple franchises that Sony
could make exorbitant amounts of money from.
However, there was one key hurdle
that needed to be navigated.
There had been some creative friction behind the scenes
of the first movie.
Sony had kept it quiet in the lead up to the film's release,
but a large portion of the film was re-shot and re-edited
in post to minimize a subplot with Peter Parker's
parents being spies.
While this angle was right out of the comics,
Sony execs felt that it was too far a departure from the world
established by Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire.
Searching Bing multiple times in the film?
That was totally believable.
But his parents disappearing due to a botched covert secret
mission?
Yeah, that was a bridge too far.
Sony had wanted a spider-man movie
that felt like what someone would
anticipate seeing if they were coming
to see a spider-man movie.
Sony wanted all the standard beloved characters
that had appeared in the Raimi movies reintroduced
as quickly as possible--
Mary Jane, Harry Osborn, and Norman Osborn.
This is how you get a new Green Goblin, played by Dane Dehaan,
a dying Norman Osborn, played by Chris Cooper,
and a new, more classically oriented version
of Spidey's suit.
But Sony didn't want a retread of these characters completely.
They also wanted them presented in slightly new ways.
They wanted the film to appear like it
was offering us new things, most of which we've also
seen before.
This logic is how you get a post-credit scene that
sets up the Sinister Six that never goes anywhere.
Now that Spider-Man's gone, this city will never be the same.
But also, Sony's list of demands couldn't end there.
The film needed to build off of the Gwen and Peter romance
from the first movie.
And, it needed its own new villain we hadn't seen before--
Electro.
Honestly, this film was given such a tall order.
It's a miracle it even had a story considering
how much pressure Sony was putting on it.
This was a lot to squeeze into one two hour story,
but they went for it.
Shailene Woodley, the future star of Divergent
and The Fault in Our Stars, was cast
as this new version of Mary Jane--
a fresh faced star with a mercurial energy
and an emotional resonance that looked to be the big breakout
star of the movie.
However, with the overstuffed film practically bursting
at the seams, there wasn't much room
for a significant Mary Jane story within the film.
She played a more supporting role,
setting MJ up for the next Amazing Spider-Man film.
Shailene Woodley only shot for a few days on the film.
Mary Jane was in four scenes--
four scenes in the whole film.
And it didn't make sense-- they're introducing
so many new characters.
It really didn't make sense to introduce
such a vital character to the comic books.
Mary Jane was employed as a coffee shop barista
during the film.
Ultimately, Mary Jane was not kept in the finished product.
Sony and director Mark Webb have said previously
that having Mary Jane in the film
distracted from the swan song story
for Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy.
Webb told the LA Times, "Shailene
is a brilliant actress, and she did a great couple of days
work, but it was very difficult to introduce someone
as a competing love interest when
so much is on the table with Peter and Gwen."
Is this the whole story?
Honestly, probably not.
The fact that Sony was deeply concerned with setting up
the Sinister Six and other Rogues Gallery
for films that would ultimately never materialize
was their number one priority.
If Webb and company had wanted to cut something
that linked directly to that out of the movie,
you bet there would have been a push back.
In this case, Sony was happy to wait for Mary Jane
if it meant that they could get their tarantula
and His Amazing Friends theme park ride off the ground.
Shailene Woodley is quoted as having said, "Of course I'm
bummed, but I am a firm believer in everything happening
for a specific reason.
Based on the proposed plot, I completely understand the need
for holding off on introducing Mary Jane until the next film."
Unfortunately, Amazing Spider-Man 2
would be the death knell for Sony's interconnected Amazing
Spider universe.
Amazing two pulled in close to $500 million
at the box office off of a budget of 300.
It was also critically lambasted,
receiving negative feedback about the film's tone,
simplicity, and retreads of villains and concepts
previously explored in prior spider-man films.
We all know what happened from here.
Kevin Feige came a knockin', Amy Pascal said OK,
let's share spider-man, and Tom Holland became a generational
definition of the friendly neighborhood wall crawler.
'Sup guys, forget your PIN number?
When you're trying to build a franchise,
it's important to evaluate the topography of your choices
appropriately.
Sony wanted to run before they learned how to crawl.
And an overstuffed poorly thought out
second installment calls them to have no option but to partner
with Marvel.
All those spin-off movies they were planning-- well,
they went nowhere until off the back of the MCU spider-man,
they decided to green-light Venom, Venom Two, Morbius,
and Kraven.
And we don't even need to discuss what an ongoing train
wreck those films are.
As far as Mary Jane goes, was taking
her out of Amazing Spider-Man the appropriate move?
Yeah, it really seems like it was.
The one thing that genuinely works about Amazing Spider-Man
2, aside from the Todd McFarlane influenced suit,
is the chemistry between at the time real-life couple Emma
Stone and Andrew Garfield.
Their comedic timing is electric.
This is the most cliched hiding place you could have chosen.
This--
I'm sorry--
This is the stupidest hiding place.
--I didn't take us to the Bahamas of hiding places.
Their obvious infatuation and attraction
for each other lights up on the screen.
However, introducing a version of Mary Jane as a competitor
to this would be hard to swallow as an audience.
Like Webb previously stated, it's
hard to really be emotionally invested in Parker's trauma
over losing Gwen when he's one foot at the door
and interested in this new coffee shop employee.
If anything, this seems like it ended
in a completely amicable way.
Shailene Woodley still has quite the impressive career.
The movie's failure might have haunted Garfield for a while,
but now, thanks to No Way Home, he's gotten his own swan song.
So really, all's well that ends well.
And that's it for this episode of Nerdstalgic.
What do you think?
Will we ever see the cut footage of Shailene Woodley as MJ?
Maybe someday, right?
Well, until then, please be sure to subscribe to Nerdstalgic
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