Shailene Woodley recalls the year-long wait to learn her Mary Jane scenes were cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Shailene Woodley has spoken in detail about learning that her scenes as Mary Jane in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were cut from the finished film — a call she says came roughly a year after she shot them. Woodley described the conversation as "a fun phone call," adding simply: "We shot it" (JoBlo).

Woodley's remarks came during a nearly 90-minute interview for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Conversations series, in which actors discuss their craft (Variety). The Amazing Spider-Man 2, directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, opened in cinemas in May 2014.

Woodley said she filmed about three scenes with Garfield for the film. She was told her Mary Jane material was cut because the filmmakers had introduced many new characters and wanted to let the relationship between Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy and Garfield's Parker play out first. She was also told that Mary Jane would be introduced after Gwen Stacy's death — a story beat the sequel does reach — but the subsequent film that would have brought Mary Jane to the screen was never made (Variety).

Producer Matt Tolmach offered a similar account in 2014, telling Variety the creative team had "bit off more story than we could tell" with a 148-page script and realised Mary Jane's storyline would not fit in the movie (Variety).

For Woodley, the role carried personal weight. She called being cast as Mary Jane "my dream," saying Spider-Man is her favourite superhero and Mary Jane was her favourite character growing up. The role has a long screen history: Kirsten Dunst played Mary Jane opposite Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, which began in 2002 (Variety).

Woodley said she was disappointed when she learned her scenes would not appear in the final cut. The wait — close to a year between filming and the call — meant the news arrived well after production had wrapped, leaving no room to course-correct or reshoot around the character's absence (Variety).

The planned Amazing Spider-Man franchise stopped at two films. Sony's rights to the character later moved into a shared arrangement with Marvel Studios, and Tom Holland took over the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Woodley's Mary Jane never reached screens, and the storyline the filmmakers had mapped out for her died with the series that was meant to deliver it.