It was a bold (read: risky) choice for Sony to reboot the Spider-Man franchise so soon after Sam Raimi's trilogy ended, even if drafting Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in to play Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy seemed inspired. Cut to 2014, and the worst fears had been realised: this was the year of release for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which mostly disappointed critics and fans, the latter of whom in particular were just hoping for more. Fans had, for one, been looking forward to seeing the iconic Mary Jane Watson back on screen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, this time played by Shailene Woodley, an actress who so excelled in The Descendants and The Spectacular Now. Woodley was cut out of the film, however, "to streamline the story and focus on Peter and Gwen and their relationship", with the idea that her Mary Jane would return for The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Woodley's position playing Mary Jane again seemed unlikely, though, when Woodley found success in her own rubbish film series, The Divergent saga. But now that Sony has cancelled their second Spider-Man sequel, decided to share the rights with Marvel Studios and deigned to reboot the movie again (completely necessarily, of course - everybody loves it when studios reboot a series twice in just four years), audiences will never see Woodley as Mary Jane.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
