Spidey Producers: THAT Character Not Really That Character

Feige and Pascal talk SPOILERS.

By Jim Vejvoda

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS about Spider-Man: Homecoming. If you haven't seen the wall-crawler's new movie yet then bookmark this page, go see the movie, and come back and read this interview with the producers!

I recently chatted with Spider-Man: Homecoming producers Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal about the Marvel-Sony movie, during which time we spoke on the record about some of the biggest moments and spoilers in the movie.

I asked about the climactic reveal that Peter Parker's artsy, acerbic classmate Michelle (played by Zendaya) goes by the nickname "MJ," which is the same nickname as Spidey's longtime comics girlfriend and future wife, Mary Jane Watson.

According to the producers, though, just because Michelle also goes by 'MJ," it doesn't mean that she actually is the MCU's version of Mary Jane Watson.

Zendaya as "Michelle" in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

IGN: I'm going to sort of swipe a line from J.J. Abrams and ask why you went the mystery box route with the Michelle/MJ/Zendaya reveal. Can you talk a little bit about the decision to do that?

Feige: Well, we never even looked at it as a big reveal necessarily but more of just a fun homage to his past adventures and his past love. She's not Mary Jane Watson. She never was Mary Jane Watson. She was always this new high school character, Michelle, who we know there's an "M" in Michelle and an "M" in Mary. [laughs] So we're so clever and we thought, "Wouldn't it be neat if her initials were MJ?" And then I think it leaked that she would be playing MJ and then it became a whole headache for Zendaya to have to navigate. It was never a big, "Oh my God, it's a big reveal!" There are big reveals in the movie. That's not one of them.

Pascal: She is not going to end as being Mary Jane Watson.

Feige: She's not Mary-Jane Watson. Is she going to date Peter? Are they going to fall in love? She seems to be intrigued with him. There's a nice chemistry there. Who knows what will happen in the future films?

So what do you think of the producers' comments on Zendaya, Michelle and the "MJ" of it all? Sound off in the Comments below!

For more of our coverage on Spider-Man: Homecoming, check out our 5 Biggest WTF Questions we had after seeing it, all the Easter eggs and references we spotted, read or watch our movie review, and get our spoilerish reactions in the first episode of the new IGN Movies Podcast!

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