Spidey Buzz: Martin Sheen In As Uncle Ben And Mary Jane Out As Love Interest
As director Marc Webb continues spinning Spider-Man's uh, web, more Spidey-riffic bombshells are dropping. It seems like former President Bartlett will be telling Peter Parker exactly what comes with great power, but love interest Mary Jane won't be saying anything at all.
Yes, the erstwhile Brando-assassin has officially signed on as kindly ol' avuncular Uncle Ben, says E! Online after rumors of the casting had percolated all week. Presumably we'll only see him in flashbacks since Webb has said repeatedly that this is not an origin film. Of course, he also said he'd be casting younger and we ended up with 27 year-old Andrew Garfield, so who knows?
And if that's not enough arachnid buzz, it seems like screenwriter James Vanderbilt has officially dropped Mary Jane Watson from the script and the only gal for Spidey will be Gwen Stacy, as played by Emma Stone. Count me in as thinking this is a swell idea; the "love triangle" came across as limp and unnecessary in the last Spider flick, and it seems like we'll have enough on our super-heroic plate without shoehorning in another lady. Besides, this might be a simple way to help differentiate this Spider-Man trilogy from the last Spider-Man trilogy. Maybe by the next reboot circa 2018, we can move on to Felicia Hardy, AKA, the Black Cat?
· Spider-Man Total Coverage: So Long, Mary Jane [E!]
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Should be obvious why MJ was cut, in my opinion.
My 'theory': They were looking for actresses to play both MJ and Gwen. They offered Emma Stone MJ (for which she is perfect) and she refused, saying she wanted to play the larger role of Gwen instead. As she'd just made a bundle with Easy A they gave her the gig as requested, ditching the more role appropriate actress they were planning on using. As a result they then had to write out the MJ part, figuring they couldn't make the movie work with effectively two MJs.
"Bartlet."
OR, even more obvious. They are going with the original comic storyline which had Gwen Stacy before Peter hooked up with Mary Jane