Mary Jane Watson

Gayle Watson-Byrnes (sister)

Anna May Watson (aunt)

Peter Parker (boyfriend)

> *The following information comes from Mary Jane Watson*
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**Mary Jane "MJ" Watson** is a fictional character, a supporting character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr., the character made her first appearance in *The Amazing Spider-Man* #25 (June 1965). She has been the best friend, main love interest, and wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man. In The Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy she is portrayed by Charlotte Elizzabeth.

## Biography

### Early Life

Mary Jane keeps her childhood close to her chest, even Peter doesn't know every detail about it. What he does know about her childhood is that her father was very abusive to her as well as her mother and sister which forced them to move away from their home in Pennsylvania to live in New York with her aunt. MJ had aspirations of becoming a world famous model and actress much to the anger of her father who constantly told her she would never amount to anything.

### Meeting Peter Parker

For a long period of time, Mary Jane's aunt and Peter's aunt had tried getting the pair together feeling that they were a suitable match for each other. Peter was very reluctant to do so because of his feelings towards Gwen Stacy but when the pair eventually met he was left speechless. They struck up a great friendship with each other and even remained friends when the romance between Peter and Gwen finally blossomed and MJ became romantically involved with Harry Osborn.

### Tragedy and New Romance

MJ was just as shaken by the death of Gwen Stacy as Peter was and the tragedy was so huge it created a rift between her and Harry from which there was no recovery resulting in the pair breaking up. While comforting Peter over the loss of Gwen, the pair grew closer and closer together eventually entering into a relationship much to the delight of both their aunts but to the envy of Harry who fell in a dark period of his own.

### The Clones

A year into her relationship with Peter, something strange happened. MJ arrived at her home to find an unconscious Peter led on the floor of the sitting room. As she was about to call for an ambulance, another Peter walked in through the front door. Once the other had regained consciousness he revealed his name to be Ben Reilly, where he had come from and that his DNA matched Peter's even the spider powers. This forced Peter to reveal his secret identity as Spider-Man to Mary Jane. Desperate for answers, Peter and Ben travelled to a hidden location where they made the discovery of Miles Warren, as the Jackal, making clones of various individuals including Gwen Stacy as well as revealing Peter was the clone. After a battle that destroyed the facility, the pair returned to Mary Jane and told her of the revelation after which Ben decided to take on the role of Spider-Man but naming himself the Scarlet Spider allowing Peter to live happily with Mary Jane.

### Black Suit and Venom

During a battle, Peter acquired a black version of his regular suit which made him faster and stronger than he had ever been in his life as well as far more confident much to the approval of Mary Jane. However she quickly learned that it not only made him more confident but also more moody and violent, something she discovered when in a fit of rage Peter struck her unintentionally. Mortified, Peter left to rid himself of the suit, returning home to comfort Mary Jane. Some time after this, MJ was kidnapped by Eddie Brock who had bonded to the alien symbiote and become Venom. Peter eventually found her and after numerous exhausting encounters was able to defeat Venom but not without doubting himself as Spider-Man. MJ consoled him, vowing to remain by his side until the end, telling him she loved Spider-Man because he was Peter Parker and not the other way round

### My Own Worst Enemy

The events of My Own Worst Enemy take place a year after Peter's battle with Venom.

## Behind the Scenes

Right from the beginning, Moore knew Mary Jane would be one of the most important castings of the project but also had a feeling it would also be one of the trickiest. "I know a lot of people see the character as a sort of damsel in distress, the kind of girl you think of as being part of the 1950s waving their husbands off to work then having their dinner ready when they come home and that turns a lot of actresses off and in large part I think it's down to the [Sam] Raimi Spider-Man trilogy for giving that image when the character isn't completely like that." Moore said of Mary Jane. The character was one Moore wanted cast as soon as possible so he put the casting call out on a group he was part of on Facebook not expecting a lot of replies. To his surprise, three responded showing their interest in taking on the role. Moore made it clear from the start what was to be expected for the role keeping nothing secret. Over the weeks before the audition, two had to drop out leaving only Charlotte Elizzabeth to audition. Moore had worked with her previously so had a rough idea of her range but wanted to see for himself just to be certain. After her audition, Moore and casting director Elijha-Adams Collorick were left speechless and immediately cast Charlotte as Mary Jane. A couple of methods were discussed for changing Elizzabeth's natural blonde hair to red. "I said to her I wanted Mary Jane to be a proper red head, one of my problems with Spider-Man 2 and 3 was Kirsten Dunst dyed her hair making her look ginger while in the first she wore a red wig, MJ is always drawn with bright red hair not ginger not to say I have anything against people with ginger hair I just knew what I wanted for the character." Elizzabeth agreed with Moore and told him she would happily dye her hair red for the part much to Moore's admiration.

Elizzabeth had already filmed some of her scenes when the project was rebooted but expressed interest in reprising the role of Mary Jane for the new direction instead opting to wear a red wig for the role instead of dying it. Moore stated that MJ and Peter would not be together for the entire movie. "With Peter changing, it puts more strain on their relationship that they try to make work but ultimately it won't and they will go their separate ways". The character will also fill in for Carlie Cooper in some scenes, a character who was in the original arc and also managed to figure out what happened to Peter before being kidnapped by the Green Goblin and turned into a goblin herself. Moore has said Mary Jane will be kidnapped and turned into a goblin ready for the Goblin Nation portion in the follow up The Superior Spider-Man.

## Trivia

* Charlotte's red hair is not her own in My Own Worst Enemy. While she did dye her hair originally, Charlotte decided to get a red wig for the role
* As a slight deviation from the comic version, Peter and Mary Jane are together by the time of My Own Worst Enemy as opposed to almost getting back together
* Mary Jane, like Jessica Jones, will fill in part of Carlie Cooper's role from the comics