“The Descendants” actress Shailene Woodley may be in the running for the role of Mary Jane Watson in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” MTV News reported on Thursday. The actress would join British actor Andrew Garfield and American actress Emma Stone in the Marc Webb directed sequel.
Comics Alliance senior editor Caleb Goellner told MTV News that the “Secret Life of the American Teenager” has the right potential to play the part. “I haven’t caught as many episodes of ‘The Secret Life of the American Teenager’ as some dudes, but from what I’ve seen of Shailene Woodley, she seems like a legit candidate for Mary Jane.”
However, Goellner does seen a downfall to casting the 20-year-old actress, “I guess the only problem is that she seems a little too nice to date a guy who wouldn’t go to his ex-girlfriend’s dad’s funeral, or to potentially surrender a future marriage of Peter Parker to Satan.”
According to MTV News, some in the comic book movie business are less worried about Woodley being cast and more worried about there being a Mary Jane to cast at all.
Newsarama’s Lucas Siegel told MTV News, “I don’t think the casting choice is bad at all; she’s spunky and has shown herself to be not just a capable actress, but a strong one. The bigger news here is Mary Jane the character being involved.”
SuperHeroHype’s Edward Douglas added, “I really like Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy in ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ quite a bit and I’m not sure that adding Peter’s second love interest in the second movie is such a good idea, for the same reason why having the two of them in ‘Spider-Man 3’ didn’t work.”
Others are also worried that Woodley does not fit the Mary Jane look. Brett White, a columnist for Comic Book Resources, told MTV News, “When I think of Mary Jane Watson, I think of unrelenting confidence and early ‘90s barely-there aerobics gear. I feel very, very uncomfortable thinking about the latter thing when looking at Google image results for Shailene. But I’m sure she’ll look the part when she gets some Romita-style bangs.”
According to Variety, Sony studio is also in search of an actor to play Peter Parker’s best friend and eventual enemy, Harry Osborn. Actor James Franco starred in the role during the original Sam Raimi trilogy, which starred Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane and Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker.
“The Amazing Spider-Man” is scheduled to hit theatres on May 2, 2014.
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