Shailene Woodley is Mary Jane Watson in 'Amazing Spider-Man 2'?

Though The Amazing Spider-Man took a different director with Peter Parker's romantic lead by casting Emma Stone as the blonde Gwen Stacy, it sounds like the more familiar redhead lady in Spider-Man's life will return. Variety has word that The Descendants star Shailene Woodley is in early talks to play Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This news comes after a character breakdown was sent out to agencies that also features a role for Harry Osborn, the character originally played by James Franco in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. In addition, rumors are swirling about the potential villain. More below!

The character breakdowns feature an unspecified villain being sought, but Variety says rumors going around peg Electro as the sequel's bad guy. The story (according to Wikipedia) goes, Maxwell Dillon, an electrical engineer and lineman, was repairing a power line and a freak lightning accident caused a mutagenic change that transformed him into a living electrical capacitor. There's some interesting comic tidbits involving Magneto, Stark Industries and Daredevil, but since this property is at Sony, we likely won't see any of those tie-ins on the big screen unless some sort of miracle happens.

Electro is merely a rumor at this point, and no deal has been finalized with Woodley yet, but the addition of Mary Jane is an interesting one. To really understand why, we're going to dig into somespoilers, so don't read any further if you want to go into the sequel fresh. In the comics, Gwen Stacy is Peter Parker's original love interest, but when trying to save her from Green Goblin, he accidentally causes her death, and it's a defining moment in the superhero's life. Mary Jane isn't introduced until later. Emma Stone has even said she hopes that element comes into play, so this sequel could be the end for Stacy. There's likely plenty more news coming for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so stay tuned.

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