Homecoming The Zendaya is possibly someone, maybe thread - Part 3

[Spider-man95]

So... Am I getting this right?

Spoiler

Z's character is not referred to as "Michelle" throughout the movie,
and when her name is addressed, she says her friends call her MJ. So the audience knows her as MJ, not as Michelle.

Then I don't really get the dissatisfaction. At this point in the story MJ is supposed to be sassy, opinionated, and determined, so what if she's awkward and not a bombshell yet at what, 15? 16?
And it really looks like she [BLACKOUT]knows Peter's secret here[/BLACKOUT], which is everything I wanted.

She is called Michelle in the movie by one of the teachers.

 

[sl500jazz]

QUOTE=UltimateWebhead;35418319]Indeed frustrating, but what if Michelle isn't going to be Mary Jane Watson. What if she's just going to be Michelle and [BLACKOUT]that 'MJ' line was merely an easter egg[/BLACKOUT]. As in, they just mentioned that line as a throwaway for the fans but in future movies she'll just be called Michelle. Maybe, maybe not. We'll have to see. I'm a bit upset that I learned about that spoiler, it was my own fault though. I clicked on something on a different site looking for some more reactions to the movie and saw that info. Oh well.

[/QUOTE]

This is the best that I can hope for at this point.

Well if that's true, then I wonder if the reason for the name change might be due to

1.Mary Jane supposedly not being a very common name anymore

2.The name is slang for weed

I mean I really don't know, I'm probably just grasping here. I still think we deserve some kind of explanation. And even though I haven't seen the movie yet, they supposedly never reveal what her last name is. So I wonder what's up with that? It seems like even after we see the movie, we still won't know what the story is here.

I honestly believe that naming her Michelle is just allowing them to test the waters and giving them a way out if they decide to go another direction. After all, Zendaya is only just Michelle. She isn't really Mary Jane.

raimi's mj had the family life, career ambition and the emotional side of her relationship with peter (and harry too) mostly on the nose, but she lacked the vibrancy and the wit. mj is supposed to be the life of the party and just the personification of FUN and i can count on one hand the amount of times mj actually smiled in those movies. she was also used a lot as a plot device for peter by getting kidnapped every five minutes but i don't rly hold that against her character and more against the writing. at least she tried not to be a damsel by trying to hit/hitting ock and venom. but yeah she had a lot of the deep, ugly, not fun emotional side which you need in a character for it to feel real, but it needed to be balanced with her expansive personality, which it wasn't.

it wasn't perfect, but i do think she gets a lot of flack, even these days. which is why it would've meant to much to, this time for the first time in the mcu, to have an mj with the depth AND the fun.

Basically this. Raimi has said that his MJ was an amalgam of love interests like Gwen Stacy and Betty Brant (neither of which were heavily featured in the OT). So it seems the more flamboyant aspects of the MJ character were removed to accommodate the story changes. IMO she became bland at best, and depressive at worst. Adding the heavier elements of MJ to a Gwen Stacy personality just made for an unlikable character.

 

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