The cast for Marc Webb’s reboot of Spider-Man’s movie universe continues to slowly come together with the news that Martin Sheen and Sally Field will play Uncle Ben and Aunt May, respectively, and that no-one will play Mary Jane Watson after all. News broke about Sheen and Field late yesterday, and both actors are understood to be in final negotiations for their roles as Peter Parker’s surrogate parents. Sheen in particular is a great choice; who could be better than the former beloved fictional President of the United States to make Andrew Garfield’s Peter understand that “with great power comes great responsibility”?
Meanwhile, The Wrap is reporting today that not only will MJ not appear in the upcoming movie but that she was never intended to, and hasn’t appeared in any draft of the screenplay for the movie. While this makes some more sense of the decision to hire Emma Stone to play Gwen Stacy in the movie, it’s an interesting choice that both distances the movie from Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man series, which features Mary Jane in a central role and was previously believed to be the book that the movie would be based on, and reinforces the older Amazing Spider-Man continuity, in which Mary Jane has been downgraded from wife to occasional background player in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience (Also, in Amazing Spider-Man continuity, Gwen existed before Mary Jane was introduced).
The movie begins shooting next month.
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