Why Bryce Dallas Howard’s Gwen Stacy Was So Different In Spider-Man 3

Warning! Spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home ahead.

The mishandling of Bryce Dallas Howard’s Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 exposed some significant mistakes in how Sony oversaw production on the 2007 sequel. The main problem was that the script turned Gwen Stacy into someone who bore little resemblance to the character herself. The scriptwriters shoehorned Gwen in at the studio’s request, meaning that little thought was given to retaining the true consequences of her character and her death.

Because of her hasty inclusion, Bryce Dallas Howard’s Gwen Stacy is reduced to being part of a quasi-love-triangle with Peter and Mary Jane. After being corrupted by the Venom symbiote, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker essentially uses Gwen to make MJ jealous. Gwen realizes this and leaves, right before Peter assaults a bouncer. In the comics, however, she dates Harry Osborn, his best friend and The Green Goblin’s son, and Peter is the one left frustrated and filled with jealousy. Spider-Man 3 treats Gwen as a sideshow to Peter demonstrating his submission to the symbiote.

Spider-Man 3‘s Gwen Stacy problem is similar to its Venom problem: the studio cared too much about cramming in every character it thought would sell movie tickets and too little about creating a lean, impactful story. While Gwen’s death rocked Peter Parker’s world, Gwen’s survival damaged Tobey Maguire’s tenure as Spider-Man more. The franchise was done after this, and it’s not until 2021 that all of the stories picked up during Sony’s mismanagement found a fitting conclusion in the MCU. Had Disney’s MCU not become the steamroller it did, audiences likely never would have seen Maguire don the suit again. Gwen was different because the story called for her to be to service the Peter/MJ conflict, and she ended up being completely unrecognizable from the comics as a result.

Bryce Dallas Howard’s Gwen Stacy Was A Worse Spider-Man 3 Mistake Than Venom

The main issue is that Gwen survives the movie and leaves the screen with barely a second thought, never to be seen again. Spider-Man 3‘s Venom was also terrible and rammed in with minimal notice, but at least the symbiote drove the story. In the comics, Gwen’s death shapes Peter Parker – and, indeed, comic book history – by allowing a hero to truly fail with lasting ramifications. As part of The Amazing Spider-Man #21, the Green Goblin drops Gwen from a bridge. Spider-Man manages to catch her feet with webbing, but the force of the fall snaps her neck. It’s a controversial moment and one that would’ve been brave to include (as happened with Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, whose more faithful rendition easily subsumed Howard’s as the definitive one). Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker still lives with the consequences of what was possibly his greatest failure as Spider-Man, and it leads to a beautiful moment in Spider-Man: No Way Home where he saves MJ from certain death in the same way and finds redemption before heading back to his own universe.

There’s no such return to relevance for Bryce Dallas Howard’s Gwen Stacy, whose exit from the franchise is overshadowed by Peter Parker’s transformation into the so-called “Bully Peter”. It’s also worth noting that Howard saw more to the character and wanted to continue. In an interview with MTV back in 2011, she claimed, “I loved doing [Spider-Man 3]. I was only involved in one of the Spider-Man films and hoped to be in more, but I also understood that whatever choices they were going to make about the project were going to be right and good for the franchise.” Ironically, Gwen was trapped in the taxi during the movie’s climax, then convinced Harry to help Peter – until the studio rewrote it to MJ. Gwen Stacy as a character falls into the trap of existing solely to serve her love interest’s motivations. Peter Parker is a character defined by the loss of his Uncle Ben, and post-graduation Peter needed similar motivation. So while the shock moment of her death was noticeable for its absence when it came to Howard’s interpretation of the role, she wasn’t actually doing that much of a disservice to the character.

There are, however, more awesome versions of Gwen out there who don’t exist simply to die and make Peter miserable. Earth-65 has a Gwen Stacy variant who becomes the Spider-Woman of her world, and Hailee Steinfeld brought her voice to life in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. While the Gwen in many fans’ hearts takes the form of Emma Stone, there are more opportunities yet for the character, especially with Across the Spider-Verse coming in 2022. With luck, there’ll be far less meddling than in Spider-Man 3.

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