Gwen Stacy

Gwendolyne Maxine Stacy is a fictional character in Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man films, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. She was portrayed by Emma Stone in the films The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. As opposed to taking a supporting role in the previous film trilogy, Gwen is given a prominent role in Webb's films as one of Peter Parker's classmates, serving as his primary love interest and a foil to his character. Webb based Gwen's character off of her traditional comic-book portrayal. For her performance in the films, Stone has received critical praise and wider recognition, despite the divided response to the film series as a whole. Character development and execution Origins and casting The character of Gwen Stacy first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 in 1965. Intended to be Spider-Man's primary love interest, she was soon superseded in popularity by Mary Jane Watson in that role by fans. This eventually led to the now-controversial decision by Spider-Man writers to kill off Gwen, which served as one of the most pivotal moments in comic-book history; Spider-Man's failure to save Gwen was one of the first big failures by a superhero, and is regarded as the end of the Silver Age of Comic Books. The character has subsequently been cloned or revived several times or seen different iterations in the comics, including one as Spider-Gwen, and has been included in several television shows and cartoons based on Spider-Man. The first big-budget cinematic appearance of Gwen Stacy was in Spider-Man 3, with Bryce Dallas Howard portraying the character in a supporting role, as Mary Jane was already serving as Peter's main love interest in that trilogy. Following the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 and reboot of the Spider-Man film series, it was originally reported that both Gwen and Mary Jane would appear in the first film of the new series before Gwen was confirmed as the only one of Peter's love interests to appear. The shortlist of actresses to play the role included Lily Collins, Ophelia Lovibond, and Imogen Poots, with Teresa Palmer, Emma Roberts, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter as "potentially in the mix". In September 2010, Variety reported that the shortlist had expanded to include Emma Stone and Mia Wasikowska.