We heard last month that Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield had officially signed on to return for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and now an incredibly interesting casting development has surfaced.
Shailene Woodley, the acclaimed young star of last year’s The Descendants, is now in talks to star as Mary Jane Watson in the upcoming sequel, Variety report.
Stone is also expected to reprise her role as Peter’s love interest, Gwen Stacy, and it will be interesting to see how the relationships between Peter and Stacy and Peter and Watson develop in the next instalment of what is set to be a new Spider-Man trilogy.
The film is getting ready to start casting, and alongside the new development in Woodley, character breakdowns have gone out to talent agencies, and Electro is rumoured to be one of the possible villains the filmmakers are playing with for the sequel.
In addition to MJ and this as-yet-unconfirmed villain, the search is also underway for an actor to star as Harry Osborn, Peter’s friend and eventual nemesis, originally played by James Franco in Sam Raimi’s trilogy, the son of the infamous Norman Osborn.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Transformers) will be credited for the screenplay, along with Jeff Pinker (Fringe, Lost), based on an original draft by James Vanderbilt, who penned the first film.
Marc Webb will be back behind the camera, and we can’t wait to see what he brings us with the sequel. The Amazing Spider-Man took north of $750m. around the globe, and if all goes well, the second film could well top that having built a firm audience to expand upon.
The end credits scene in the first film teased a mysterious villain enquiring after Peter’s knowledge of his parents, appearing and disappearing in the midst of flashes of lightning, and with Electro’s ability to control electricity after being struck by lightning himself, he could well be the villain coming into play in the next instalment.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set for release on 2nd May, 2014, with production set to get underway early next year. After what Webb, Garfield, and Stone brought us with the brilliant first film, I can’t wait to see what will happen next, and bringing Mary Jane Watson into the mix would certainly make for an interesting sequel. More as we get it.
