10 Leading Film Characters That Didn’t Really Go Anywhere
9. Gwen Stacy - Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Peter Parker’s first love, Gwen Stacy haunts him in the comic books (and sometimes onscreen as well) after she is killed by Norman Osborn's Green Goblin. However, Bryce Dallas Howard’s Gwen was not given faithful treatment in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 - a sad turn of events given that Raimi had been doing such a fine job with his first two instalments in his Spider-Man trilogy.
In the film, Gwen is Peter Parker’s (Tobey Maguire’s) lab assistant and also shares an upside-down kiss with Spider-Man, recalling his romantic entanglement with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) in the first film. Nevertheless, Gwen then becomes a mere plaything to the symbiote-infected Peter in his bid to snub both Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) and Mary Jane.
Gwen has the good grace to apologise to Mary Jane for her involvement in Peter's cruel game and to leave Peter, but it does not excuse wasting a character who should evoke genuine pathos.
That character received a far more loyal treatment in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), which went to great lengths to explore the relationship between Peter (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen (Emma Stone), following the rise and tragic fall of their love, and the impact that it leaves on Peter (Andrew Garfield).
This helped to underline just how wasted Bryce Dallas Howard’s Gwen Stacy truly was, serving as nothing more than a casual flirtation for Maguire’s Peter Parker when she should have been a further tragic figure in his life who drives him to continue in his crusade as Spider-Man.