Ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home's release in 2021, there were a lot of rumours about who would and wouldn't appear in the movie. As it happens, most of them were true, though Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy were sorely missed.
The pandemic may have played a role in them not being included, though it's hard to say when or where they'd have been room for either character. Both Spider-Man Variants were pulled into Earth-616 from their respective realities, and we're guessing MJ and Gwen were considered back when America Chavez was going to be the one responsible for opening doors to different worlds.
During a recent red carpet interview, Stone was asked if she was ever contacted by Marvel Studios about returning for what ended up being the first $2+ billion-grossing Spider-Man movie.
"No. No. Is that true? I have never heard that before," The Amazing Spider-Man star admitted. "This is awesome. This is a big moment for me. Thank you for telling me."
It was then put to Stone that she could return to the Marvel Universe and play Spider-Gwen thanks to Madame Web (a movie it doesn't appear she'd ever heard of). To that, she responded, "Oh my God, once again, new information. Everyone? Everyone in the world? Whoa. Alright, send [the fan-art] to me. Send it over."
Stone suiting up as Spider-Gwen would be fun to see, but at the same time, it makes little sense. The character is a teenager not a veteran superhero in her 30s, so the Oscar-winner playing the hero would be a major departure from the comic books.
In the recently released MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios book, it was said:
"Sommers and McKenna, at various points, wrote versions of the story that incorporated Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson, and Sally Field’s Aunt May, but ultimately cut all those women when they decided that the story was already overstuffed; the only female characters with significant screen time would be Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May and Zendaya's MJ."
The idea clearly never got off the ground and it seems like Stone's time as Gwen is well and truly over. There are rumblings she passed on playing Sue Storm in Fantastic Four over money, so fingers crossed someone asks the actress whether there's any truth to those claims!