Gwen Stacy May Survive Longer than Expected in Spider-Man Reboot

[Logan Westbrook]

Gwen Stacy May Survive Longer than Expected in Spider-Man Reboot

A comment about hair - of all things - implies that Spider-Man greatest failure won't happen quite as soon as people thought.

Spider-Man's first, and some would say greatest, love, Gwen Stacy, is to appear in the upcoming movie reboot, and as her death is one of the most iconic moments in comic book history, it was assumed that she wasn't going to survive to see the credits roll. But comments from Emma Stone, the actress playing Stacy, suggest that that might not be the case, and that we're going to get a chance to get to know her character before she dies.

In an interview on The Tonight Show , Leno asked Stone - who is known for having red hair - how long she planned to keep her hair blond. Stone replied that there were "a few Spider-Men" movies to make, so she might have to keep the color in for a couple of years. It was a throwaway comment, and the interview very quickly moved on to other topics, but the implication that not only are there multiple movies in the works - admittedly, not much of a surprise in and of itself - and that Stacy would be in at least two of them, is interesting.

In the comics, Stacy is dropped off a bridge by Spider-Man's perennial foe, the Green Goblin. Spider-Man fires a web line and catches Stacy by the leg before she hits the ground. Sadly, Spider-Man's victory is short lived, as Stacy is dead, and he's never sure whether it was the shock of the fall that killed her, or the whiplash from the jerking effect of the web line snapped her neck. It was unprecedented in comic book history for a comic book character to fail so utterly, and is credited by one of the events that marked the end of the Silver Age of comics.

In a way, it makes sense for Stacy to survive at least the first movie, because Spider-Man's origin story already has one major loss in it - Uncle Ben - and stuffing another one in might be a little too much for audiences to handle. Of course, this is just speculation based on a single comment. Stacy might die in the first five minutes of the first movie and then make multiple appearances in flashbacks. The movie doesn't come out until 2012, but hopefully we'll find out more before them.

Source: io9 [http://io9.com/5716221/the-spider+man-reboot-may-not-do-the-gwen-stacy-storyline-youre-expecting]


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[Onyx Oblivion]

Oh, so Spidey has some mixed guilt? Wondering if he caused her death by trying to stop it?

 

[NeedAUserName]

It will have more impact if she doesn't die until the second or third film in my opinion, its a good idea for the character to gather favor, and be accepted by the audience, then killed of later down the line.

 

[BrunDeign]

Is it bad that I leaped to comment on this as soon as I saw the typo for the sake of pointing out said typo?

"Spider Man won't greatest failure won't" just made me laugh.

But on the topic of the actual topic, did it occur to people that the actor isn't exactly going to be familiar with the scripts? I mean she probably knows the script to the first movie but as far as the second one goes it probably hasn't been made yet let alone given to the actors. She's talking as though she has two or three more movies left in her.

 

[Dexiro]

Wait why are they rebooting it? The original films were fine. Or are they doing it to fit the whole Avengers thing better?

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Sounds good to me. I don't mind the reboot yet, but can a brother get some Lizard action soon? And Emma Stone is a fairly accomplished actress, so this may not be the most terrible thing to happen.

 

[mrm5561]

makes sence for her to live. its kinda like how they waited until the dark knight to kill rachel.

 

[TPiddy]

Wait why are they rebooting it? The original films were fine. Or are they doing it to fit the whole Avengers thing better?

The Reboot was largely done for Sony to keep the Spiderman movie license. If they don't use it after x amount of years it goes back to Marvel, who have been trying to re-acquire their licenses since opening their own studio. The Reboot, with new actors is also a convenient method for trying to make people forget about how badly they fucked up the last one.

 

[sdc10]

Wait why are they rebooting it? The original films were fine. Or are they doing it to fit the whole Avengers thing better?

Sony actually had a reboot script written while Raimi was still attached to the franchise. The plan was to do Spider-Man 4 and maybe a fifth film and then reboot the series. However, production on the fourth film was not progressing as smoothly as Sony would have liked so the decision was made to pull the plug and just start over with the reboot. Which is good in my opinion because the reported storyline for spider man 4 was pretty dumb in my opinion. And no this is not done to fit in with the Avengers, remember Sony makes the Spider-Man films, not Marvel so its impossible to tie them together.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

People still debate how Gwen Stacy died? Marvel editorial made it official that it was the jerk of the whiplash years ago.

So says science!

 

[dragontiers]

I hope they do just keep her alive for a few movies. The alternative is to go into all the "Gwen Stacy Clone" issues, and they were just generally a mess. I've lost track of the number of times they've brought Gwen back, only for it to be a trick, red herring, or other form of fan-baiting.

 

[Lucifer dern]

Wait why are they rebooting it? The original films were fine. Or are they doing it to fit the whole Avengers thing better?

all the stuff above and because they where at risk of ending up with "spider man 10..." and running out of villians people actualy care about to kill, and ending up looking at the comic books, inventing other universes and trips back from death and so on...

 

[JediMB]

In the comics, Stacy is dropped off a bridge by Spider-Man's perennial foe, the Green Goblin. Spider-Man fires a web line and catches Stacy by the leg before she hits the ground.

Nitpick: She was going to hit the water.

Sadly, Spider-Man's victory is short lived, as Stacy is dead, and he's never sure whether it was the shock of the fall that killed her, or the whiplash from the jerking effect of the web line snapped her neck.

The original version had a sound effect to show that her neck snapped from the whiplash. Although that was edited away from later prints, there have been multiple stories that confirm the original intent to be canonical.

(There was a "What If" story that had him diving into the water to save her instead, a story where he had to save MJ in a similar fashion and caught her in a way that wouldn't harm her, a story with Ben Reilly where he caught a woman who tried to commit suicide from a bridge, and finally a story where Peter confessed to MJ that it was his fault that Gwen died from the fall.)

 

[Delusibeta]

People still debate how Gwen Stacy died? Marvel editorial made it official that it was the jerk of the whiplash years ago.

So says science!

"And, Gwen has the unique distinction of... remaining dead. And in over 30 years she has not gotten better"

To quote MovieBob: Comics! Are! Weird!

 

[Kinokohatake]

Wait why are they rebooting it? The original films were fine. Or are they doing it to fit the whole Avengers thing better?

all the stuff above and because they where at risk of ending up with "spider man 10..." and running out of villians people actualy care about to kill, and ending up looking at the comic books, inventing other universes and trips back from death and so on...

All of this and they really wanted to get on the 3-D bandwagon.

 

[Therumancer]

To be honest I think killing Gwen off is an important thing, and something that needs to be in the movies so people understand Spider-Man a bit better, people only know the version from the movies in some cases and that irks me to no end.

I am hoping with a reboot they decide to make Peter Parker far less of an Emo Nerd, and more of the genius who had the whole "respected outcast" thing going like in the comics. I also think that Gwen had a lot more to do with how he developed as a hero than Uncle Ben, even though that was a major influance too.

Let's just hope this Spidey doesn't do a header into the band pit like the one in the play recently did though.

-

Oh and as far as the reboot goes, I think the biggest reason is that the actor didn't want to do the role anymore. That and I think the whole "Bad Spidey does a dance routine" thing was so iconically stupid that it had an influance on that version of the franchise. It's mocked as badly as the whole "why are there nipples on the bat suit" thing.

 

[Falseprophet]

People still debate how Gwen Stacy died? Marvel editorial made it official that it was the jerk of the whiplash years ago.

So says science!

I love Kakalios's videos. But one thing always bugged me about Gwen Stacy's death. Admittedly it's been a few years since I read it, but I don't remember Gwen having any movement or dialogue between when Spider-man first confronts Green Goblin on the bridge, and when Goblin throws her off it. How do we know she wasn't dead before Spider-man even showed up? Did I miss something?

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

I think Gwen's character is going to be around for a while. The fact that they didn't cast MJ cements that. The regular joe probably doesn't know about Gwen's death and Hollywood knows this. Where nerds can't wait to see 'the *****' die, Hollywood(I think) is focused on the insuing love triangle between Peter, Gwen, and MJ. You know, stuff the average joe actually wants to see.

 

[Jonny49]

They'll leave her death for the inevitable darker/edgier sequel.

Quickly followed by a far less interesting threequel

 

[Sparrow]

Fuck yes. Emma Stone is awesome, Gwen Stacy is awesome... why not have that awesomeness last for longer?

Wait why are they rebooting it? The original films were fine. Or are they doing it to fit the whole Avengers thing better?

It'd make sense, I suppose. Spidey is part of S.H.I.E.L.D in the Ultimate Spidey world and the film is supposedly based off of the Ultimate books with the Ultimate writer ultimately helping to write the ultimate script.

People still debate how Gwen Stacy died? Marvel editorial made it official that it was the jerk of the whiplash years ago.

As well as the book Marvels, in which the main character views it happen and there's even a little "snap" that appears as Spidey catches her with his web.

Oh, so Spidey has some mixed guilt? Wondering if he caused her death by trying to stop it?

That's Spidey in a nutshell for you. Like how he blames himself for Uncle Ben's death, he also blames himself for Gwen's death. He blames himself for basically everything - probably why he's so loveable.