Mary Jane cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2

There will be no love triangle in the second installment of The Amazing Spider-Man series. That’s right, Gwen Stacy gets Peter Parker all to herself, now that Mary Jane is out of the picture—quite literally. Director Marc Webb decided to cut Shailene Woodley’s role out of the sequel, even though she had already filmed scenes for it back in February. “I made a creative decision to streamline the story and focus on Peter and Gwen and their relationship,” Marc said. “Shailene is an incredibly talented actress and while we only shot a few scenes with Mary Jane, we all love working with her.” 

The appearance of Mary Jane Watson, one of Spider-Man’s most iconic love interests, has been pushed to The Amazing Spider-Man 3. There is the possibility that Shailene will not return and that the part will be recast. “Of course I’m bummed,” the 21-year-old Golden Globe nominee (The Descendants) said. “But I am a firm believer in everything happening for a specific reason.” She added, “Based on the proposed plot, I completely understand the need for holding off on introducing [Mary Jane] until the next film.” The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set to crawl into theaters on May 4, 2014, while earlier this week Sony confirmed the dates for the third and fourth installments, giving them release dates of June 10, 2016 and May 4, 2018, respectively. ~Naomi Leanage