What is the reason for choosing Mary Jane over the Gwen Stacy in the 2002 Spider-Man movie?
As per the original storyline of Spider-Man Gwen Stacy is the first serious love of Peter Parker (Betty Brant is the first relationship of him which never worked). Then why did Marvel/Columbia Pictures choose Mary Jane over her for the 2002 Spider-Man.
Is there any specific reason for it or just a random decision? I know about the death of Gwen Stacy but none of them forced them to eliminate her role.
Now in the 2012 reboot, they are using Gwen in the lead role and replacing Mary Jane by Gwen.
But my question is that why they used Mary Jane in Sam Rami's Spider-Man Trilogy?
Best Answer
One possible reason might be the desired to avoid too much angst. A Gwen Stacy plot has to end with Peter blaming himself for Gwen's death, and being blamed by her father.
We already have that plot element in any Spider-man origin story with the death of Uncle Ben. Running the same plot device twice in the same movie seems wrong.
Those of us who were reading Spider-man in the 60's think of Betty Brant as Peter's first crush, and MJ as the first girl he has any significant relationship with. She may not have been Peter's first love, but she was many a reader's dream.
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What is the difference between Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy?
In Stan Lee's original plan, Mary Jane was to serve as "the other woman" whom Peter would date for some time before realizing Gwen Stacy was the person with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. To facilitate the storyline, MJ was made a vivacious, trendy "mod girl" who stood in direct contrast to Gwen Stacy.Why was Mary Jane cut from Amazing Spider-Man?
The scenes of Shailene Woodley playing Spider-Man's love interest, Mary Jane, were cut to focus on his current relationship to Gwen. Joe Scarnici/Getty Images There was a lot made out of Shailene Woodley's dismissal from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.Who comes first Gwen or Mary Jane?
Gwen Stacy came first, created by Stan Lee, modeled on his beloved wife Joan. She was a staple of early issues of Amazing Spider-Man, until she was tragically killed by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #125.Does Spider-Man like Gwen or Mary Jane?
Though Peter dated her briefly before Gwen, both of them broke it off as Peter saw her flamboyance, flakiness and 'life of the party' personality as shallow and MJ does not want to be tied down by a man. She eventually became Peter's main love interest after Gwen's death at the hands of the Green Goblin.WHO WINS: MARY JANE OR GWEN STACY?
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Answer 2
I'd reason it's because Mary Jane was the more famous/iconic choice for Peter's love interest at the time of the original films and the writers/producers wanted to try their best to appeal to a wider audience.
The Mary Jane entry on Wikipedia notes:
According to co-creator Stan Lee, Mary Jane was originally intended to be simply a rival for Gwen Stacy for the affections of Peter Parker. Lee had always intended for Gwen Stacy to be Spider-Man's one true love. The pairing of Mary Jane and Peter Parker became one of the most prominent couples in the superhero genre.
The 2002 film was one of the first big superhero adaptations in years, so they may have wanted to play it safe by choosing the more popular character, which at the time was definitely Mary Jane.
Since then, superhero movies have become much more popular and there have also been big changes within the Marvel universe such as Peter Parker and Mary Jane no longer being married. I would still argue that Mary Jane is more well-known than Gwen Stacy, but I don't think that fact mattered as much when they were making the reboot.
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