Kirsten Dunst Open to Playing Old Mary Jane in Future Spider-Man Project

As Disney and Marvel gear up for the next phase of the MCU, Kirsten Dunst says she would reprise her role as Mary Jane Watson in future Spider-Man films. Dunst first played Mary Jane in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in 2002, before returning for Spider-Man 2 in 2004 and again for Spider-Man 3 in 2007. In the films, Mary Jane is the love interest of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire).

Since Raimi’s Spider-Man in the early 2000s, Spider-Man has received two additional live-action franchise reboots. Sony’s second attempt in 2012 was titled The Amazing Spider-Man and starred Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey. A sequel came out in 2014, but future sequels and spinoffs were scrapped due to The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s critical reception. Gwen was the main love interest in Garfield’s two movies, but when Tom Holland took over the role, Zendaya was cast as MJ.

Now, 14 years after she first played the role, Dunst told Variety it ‘would be fun’ to return as Mary Jane in a Spider-Man film. She jokes that if she does return, it would be as an older version of Mary Jane, perhaps even with Spider-Man’s children. Dunst seems to be more than on-board for a future appearance explaining:

I would do it. Why not? That would be fun. I would never say no to something like that. I’d be old MJ at this point with little Spidey babies.”

Rumors have been flying about the possible return of Maguire and Garfield in the upcoming MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home since the multiverse was broken. There were even early reports about Maguire and Dunst being courted to return for Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, they would eventually go on to deny any participation in the MCU film. Despite the news that they would not be returning, speculation and theories about their return continued to thrive because of Disney’s tight grasp on secrecy surrounding the Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The idea of a Spider-Man movie with more than one Spider-Man also stems from the recent Sony animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where six different Spider-People are in the same universe. The trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home included Doctor Strange discussing the multiverse and a clip of Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus, who played the same role in Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. There is still not much known about the upcoming film, but fans maintain the theory that Maguire and Garfield are involved with the film in some way.

Dunst was initially very critical of the MCU’s reboot back in 2017 and has continued to report that she is not returning for the upcoming Spider-Man film. However, her interest in returning to the character after so long might suggest that she’s seen the franchise’s success and has come around to revisiting a series that has continued to be relevant to audiences spanning decades. Even if Dunst couldn’t return for a full role, she could return for a cameo similar to J.K. Simmons in Spider-Man: Far From Home.