Big news coming out of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 camp today (a camp which seems to be ignoring our requests to call the film Web of Spider-Man, but oh well): Shailene Woodley is currently up for the role of Mary Jane Watson, the love interest who sat out Marc Webb's recent reboot after co-starring in all three of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. This closely follows the original comics, which established Gwen Stacy as Peter Parker's first love before finally introducing Mary Jane Watson (as a blind date he wasn't even looking forward to) in Amazing Spider-Man #42, way back in 1966. Shailene Woodley hails from the television series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" but received more attention for her role as George Clooney's daughter in the Oscar-winning The Descendants. If cast, she'd be replacing Kirsten Dunst, who previously played the role throughout the 2000s.
But beyond that potential casting new, Variety has even more updates on Amazing Spider-Man 2 for us: not only is Marc Webb seeking a new Mary Jane Watson, he's also seeking a new Harry Osborn, Peter Parker's best friend from the comics and the son of his greatest enemy, Norman Osborn, who was mentioned by name in Webb's reboot this past summer but never seen on screen. No word yet on whether Norman is in the cards yet, but given how conspiracy- and continuity-heavy The Amazing Spider-Man was, we wouldn't be entirely shocked if they were saving him for the third part of the inevitable trilogy.
Most interesting of all, it appears that Variety also has a line on who the next villain will be, and it's not The Green Goblin. It turns out that Marc Webb is seriously considering Max Dillon, aka Electro, a supervillain with (as you may have surmised) the ability to control electricity. Electro is one of Spider-Man's core rogues gallery, and frequently turns up in the ever-changing supervillain team The Sinister Six, which is usually comprised of a half dozen Spider-Man villains seeking revenge for something-or-other.
Electro would be making his second live-action comic book movie appearance after Axel Braun's Spider-Man XXX, but we suspect that most fans won't agree with us that that counts. If Electro really is the final choice, it appears that Webb would abandoning the rather clever plot conceit of the first film, namely the genetics experiment that would have justified the creation of nearly ever animal-centric Spider-Man villain in existence (i.e. most of them).
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (please, please, please change the title) is on the fast track for a May 2, 2014 release date.
CraveOnline will be back with more Amazing Spider-Man 2 news after we finally find someone to call us "Tiger."
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