Over the weekend, it seemed like Emma Stone, who became one of the breakout stars of 2010 with the sleeper success of "Easy A," was all set to play Mary-Jane Watson, the love of Peter Parker's life, in Marc Webb's upcoming and still untitled "Spider-Man" reboot. An offer had gone out, and it seemed that the actress was likely to sign on. And indeed, a press release from Sony has announced that "Spider-Man" will indeed feature Ms. Stone in its cast. But not as Mary-Jane.While Deadline suggests that Stone was originally offered the part of MJ, she has in fact taken on the role of Gwen Stacy, the first love of Peter Parker's life, and the role taken in "Spider-Man 3" by Bryce Dallas Howard. While the actress seemed to be a natural choice for the other role, partly due to the red-headed look she's been sporting since "Superbad," Marc Webb says in the release that it was fun to find out that our choice for Gwen (Emma) is also a natural blonde." Man, we hope that's not the only reason they've cast her...
Stone will be sporting blonde locks for the currently filming civil-rights drama "The Help," so audiences will at least have some time to get used to the look. We're huge fans of the actress, and between her, Garfield and (if rumors are to be believed) Philip Seymour Hoffman, it's shaping up to be a mean cast for a superhero film that we're cautiously optimistic about: at least more so than next year's batch of "X-Men: First Class," "Thor," "Green Lantern" and "Captain America."
One imagines that Stone may have made the switch because as a rising star, she may not want to be tied to as many movies, and if the film stays true to the comics this time, *spoiler* Stacy may get chucked off a bridge at some point in the first or second movie, paving the way for MJ to take over -- we can imagine that the idea of a one- or two-picture deal would be more tempting for the actress than being locked in for three films.
It remains to be seen whether any of the previously mentioned names (Dianna Agron, Georgina Haig, Dominique McElligott, Lily Collins and Mia Wasikowska) will be in the running to play Mary-Jane or if Sony will go back to the drawing board for the role. We reckon it's safe at this point to count out Wasikowska, who was said to be skeptical of the project anyway, but any of the other three could still theoretically be on board.
