Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy had Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) as Peter Parker’s (Tobey Maguire) love interest, but it almost added Gwen Stacy years before she appeared in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, and she would have still been doomed to a tragic ending. Spider-Man is one of the most popular and beloved characters from Marvel Comics, but he had to go through many obstacles to make the jump from the comic book pages to the big screen. Spider-Man finally got his chance in 2002 thanks to Sam Raimi in the movie simply titled Spider-Man, which explored his origin story and saw him face his first villain: Norman Osborn a.k.a. Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe).
Spider-Man is credited for redefining the superhero genre and the summer blockbuster, and its success made way for two more movies, though not all of them were well-received. Spider-Man 2 is regarded as one of the best superhero movies to date, while Spider-Man 3 is widely considered the worst in the trilogy, but one good thing the trilogy did was continue the complicated romance between Peter and MJ, with Harry Osborn (James Franco) thrown into the mix to make a love triangle. However, Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy almost had another female character as a love interest for one of its male leads: Gwen Stacy, but she wasn’t going to have a happy ending.
Gwen Stacy Almost Appeared (And Died) In Spider-Man 2
Set two years after the events of the first movie, Spider-Man 2 follows Peter Parker as he deals with an existential crisis between his life as Peter and his superhero duties as Spider-Man that temporarily leaves him without powers, all while facing a new villain: Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), a scientist who after a failed experiment, ended up neurologically fused to mechanical tentacles. If that wasn’t enough, Peter also continued dealing with problems in his personal life, especially in his unstable relationship with MJ and with his best friend Harry, who resented him for knowing Spider-Man, who he thought had killed his father. Spider-Man 2 could have taken Harry’s story in a different direction with the introduction of Gwen Stacy, but it would have made his arc even more tragic.
During the development of Spider-Man 2, David Koepp was brought on board to co-write the script with Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and he originally wanted to add Gwen Stacy to tell her story with Harry Osborn, who she dates in the comic books. In an interview with Collider, Koepp shared that his trilogy idea was to have Gwen killed in the middle of Spider-Man 2, as that followed “sort of the Empire Strikes Back model”, but in the end, his ideas weren’t used. Instead, Harry spent the whole trilogy in a love triangle with MJ and Peter Parker, and Gwen Stacy had a minor role in Spider-Man 3.
Spider-Man 3 Completely Wasted Gwen Stacy
Gwen Stacy was given a place in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, but it was a small one that completely wasted the character. Gwen Stacy was introduced as Peter's lab partner who was attracted to Spider-Man, while Peter's rival at the Daily Bugle, Eddie Brock, was attracted to her. When Peter was under the symbiote's influence, he asked Gwen out to make MJ jealous, with Gwen apologizing to MJ when she realized what Peter had done. Gwen was only used as a device to bring conflict between Peter and MJ, and Peter and Eddie, but luckily, The Amazing Spider-Man movies did justice to her, but they also gave her the tragic ending she had in the comics.