Empire had a chance to talk to the winning Shailene Woodley, star of The Descendants, at Comic-Con today, where she was promoting her lead role in the upcoming sci-fi flick, Divergent. And, after establishing that she likes to hug people she's never met, we got down to brass tacks and asked the question that's on pretty much everyone's lips: just what the hell is going on with her role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?
A quick recap, in case you haven't been paying attention: Woodley was cast in ASM2, as our sore fingers insist we must call it, as Mary Jane Watson, the redhead who enters Peter Parker's life and, in no short order, becomes the love of it. She even filmed a number of scenes for it and then... She was gone, Keyser Sozed out of the film, with the character set for introduction in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 instead.
There's been rampant speculation since about the reasons behind the decision, with some suggesting that disgraceful fanboy criticism of Woodley's looks playing some part. Yet Woodley herself says it was another reason entirely:
"She was only going to be in four scenes," explained Woodley. "I think it’s really incredibly smart that she’s not in it, looking back at it now because they’re introducing so many characters and MJ is such a vital character that it makes sense to hold off for future movies to introduce her."
Indeed, with ASM2 introducing a whole bunch of new characters, including Paul Giamatti as The Rhino, Jamie Foxx's Electro and Chris Cooper and Dane DeHaan as the Osborns (Norman and Harry), it does make sense. Will Woodley definitely be back for ASM3, though? Unfortunately she was whisked away before we could get a definitive answer.
However, we did ask her one last thing: did she get to say MJ's signature line, 'Face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot', the line which heralded the character's introduction in the comic book? Woodley laughed - "I did say it", she confirmed. Now we just have to wait to see if we'll get to hear her do so in 2016.