‘Spider-Man’ Producer Admits ‘Neither Kevin Feige Nor I Knew Who’ Zendaya Was When Casting Her as MJ: We ‘Felt Really Stupid’ When We Found Out
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Zendaya was already a big star when she was cast as MJ in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” By that point in her career she had already amassed a huge following as the star of two Disney Channel hits, “Shake It Up” and “K.C. Undercover,” plus popped up in Beyonce’s “Lemonade” film and was a runner-up on “Dancing With the Stars.” None of that apparently registered for “Spider-Man” producer Amy Pascal.
“To be honest with you, neither [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige nor I knew who she was,” Pascal admitted in Vogue magazine as part of its Zendaya cover story. “She was wearing no makeup and she was just dressed like a regular girl, and we were like, ‘Oh my God, she’s amazing. She has to be in the movie.’ And then we found out she was a totally famous person, and felt really stupid.”
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Feige and Pascal have produced all three of Zendaya’s “Spider-Man” movies, two of which have grossed more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The films pair Zendaya opposite Tom Holland in the title role. Because Zendaya was already a star prior to entering the MCU (even if Feige and Pascal had no idea), the additional fame that greeted her thanks to Marvel wasn’t too destabilizing for her personal life. The same wasn’t true for her co-star.
“We were both very, very young, but my career was already kind of going, and his changed overnight,” Zendaya told Vogue. “One day you’re a kid and you’re at the pub with your friends, and then the next day you’re Spider-Man. I definitely watched his life kind of change in front of him. But he handled it really beautifully.”
Both actors are likely to return in a fourth “Spider-Man” movie, although there’s no telling when that might be as neither Sony nor Disney have officially announced their “Spider-Man 4.”
“All I can say is that we have been actively engaging in conversations about what it could potentially look like for a fourth rendition of my character,” Holland told press last November. “Whether or not we can find a way to do justice to the character is another thing.”
“I feel very protective over Spider-Man,” the actor continued. “I feel very, very lucky that we were able to work on a franchise that got better with each movie, that got more successful with each movie, which I think is really rare, and I want to protect his legacy. So, I won’t make another one for the sake of making another one. It will have to be worth the while of the character.”
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed to Entertainment Weekly in February 2023 that Holland’s fourth “Spider-Man” movie was being written at the time. “All I will say is that we have the story,” he said then. “We have big ideas for that, and our writers are just putting pen to paper now.”
Development on the “Spider-Man 4” script was paused amid the WGA strike, with Holland telling Variety last June, “We’ve put the meetings on pause in solidarity with the writers. There’s been multiple conversations had, but at this point it’s very, very early stages.”
“Are we going to make another movie? Of course we are,” Pascal herself told Variety last summer at the “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” premiere. “We’re in the process, but the writers strike, nobody is working during the strike. We’re all being supporters and whenever they get themselves together, we’ll get started.”
Head over to Vogue’s website to read Zendaya’s latest cover story in its entirety.
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