bryce howard Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After the first Spider-Man movies, most fans were sold. Even True Believers, although we had a few nitpicky complaints (we wouldn't be real fans if we didn't, right?) Probably the most egregious change made to Spider-Man canon was the story rewrite which gave Mary Jane a good chunk of Gwen Stacy's back story. Despite her death quite some time ago (possibly even because of her death), Stacy remains a very popular character among fans. We could understand the choice to skip over her existence in the interest of translating the story to a movie, but it was tough to swallow the bridge scene if you knew how the real story went. Nonetheless, we took it in stride because hey -- it was a great flick.

Then came the announcement of Gwen entering the picture for the third film. This rankles a bit more, because her story has already been given away. True Believers worry it will cheapen her character. Bryce Howard, the actress who will play Gwen, disagrees. Howard says despite the story issues, the basic core of the character will remain true to the comics. According to Howard, the character will be brought to life "in a way that will both be surprising and appropriate and will fulfill people's expectations." You can color this blogger highly skeptical, but the movies haven't disappointed me yet, and I don't expect them to start now.

Marvel man Avi Arad recently held a phone discussion with AICN's Harry Knowles, obstentatiously to discuss a sequel to the Hulk film...but in the process he let drop perhaps the biggest bombshell Marvel movies have seen yet. Avi told Harry that Sam Raimi is hell bent on the idea of working none other than GWEN STACY into the Spider-Man movie continuum. How this is going to work out is anyone's guess...

For you casual fans not in the know, Gwen Stacy represents a huge part of Peter Parker's early life. She was a close friend of MJ's, and had a continually on-and-off romantic relationship with Peter which was consistantly hampered by the fact that he would stand her up to go fight villians (sound familiar?). Gwen was enormously popular among fans, and her death sent shockwaves through the Marvel community. It remains one of the most important and profound character deaths in the Marvelverse (perhaps because she is one of the very few characters to stay well and truly dead). You remember that scene in the first movie, wherein Mary Jane was dropped from the bridge by the Goblin, and Peter saved her in the nick of time? That story belongs to Gwen. Except in the comic book, when Spidey caught Gwen by the leg with his web the force of the sudden jerky stop snapped her neck.* It was devestating. Her death played a big part in drawing Peter and MJ into a closer, eventually romantic, relationship.

How on earth Sam plans on working Gwen in now that her story has been hijacked by MJ, I have no idea. I just hope it is done well, and doesn't feel ridiculously forced. A contract has apparently been signed with Bryce Howard; you can see a large picture of here over at AICN. Her hair, obviously, will be dyed very blond before shooting.

All I've got to say to this is...gwaaaah. To most of the world this probably won't seem like much more than a new romantic foil added in to create a love-triangle sort of deal- but to True Believers, Gwen represents so much more.  Should we be excited that her character is finally getting some on screen love, or angry that her story has been so irritatingly screwed over? 

*There are some people who argue that it was the shock of the fall that killed Gwen, but Stan Lee himself cleared up that issue many years ago.