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 Intended to be Spider-Man's primary love interest, she was soon superseded in popularity by Mary Jane Watson in that role by fans.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. After a few more actresses were considered, Stone was announced as the winner of the role in October 2010 due to her chemistry with Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield. That chemistry later inspired their off-screen romance.
For the role, Stone kept her natural blonde hair color to match Gwen's depiction in the comic books, rather than maintaining her usual dyed red hair. She felt that she had a responsibility to educate herself on Spider-Man, admitting she "hadn't read the comic book growing up, and my experience was with the Sam Raimi movies... I always assumed that Mary Jane was his first love", and having only been familiar with Howard's portrayal in Spider-Man 3. Stone said, "There's a part of me that really wants to please people [who] love Spider-Man or Gwen Stacy and want her to be done justice. I hope they'll give me license to interpret her my way." While The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb introduced a few elements from Ultimate Spider-Man, he wanted to keep the mainstream version of Gwen Stacy instead of that world's punk rocker, though he states that the "texture" of the romantic relationship between her and Peter is based on that of the Ultimate versions of Peter and Mary Jane.
Despite her character's death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Stone expressed interest in returning as a resurrected Stacy in a future The Amazing Spider-Man film in an interview with Screen Rant. By July 2014, development of follow-ups Sinister Six, The Amazing Spider-Man 3, and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 had stalled; the films would have seen Stone reprise her role, the plot following a returned Norman Osborn setting a resurrected amnesiac Gwen as Carnage against Peter, Harry Osborn, and the Sinister Six. By early 2015, a deal to reboot the series within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was reached, effectively cancelling the Amazing Spider-Man franchise.
Screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna wrote at various points versions of the story for the MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home that included Gwen Stacy, alongside appearances of Sally Field's Aunt May and Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson, but Sommers and McKenna ultimately concluded that the story felt already overstuffed, ultimately choosing Zendaya's Michelle "MJ" Jones and Marisa Tomei's Aunt May to be the only female characters in the film with significant screen time.