Who Has Played Mary Jane? The MJ Actresses, from Kirsten Dunst to Zendaya

Who has played Mary Jane? The full table

Mary Jane Watson is a central character in the Spider-Man universe, and yet the question of who plays her often causes confusion. Only one actress has really played her in live action in a film released in cinemas, another shot the role without ever appearing on screen, and the ‘MJ’ of the Tom Holland films goes by a different name. To understand what the character brings to Peter Parker, our article Mary Jane’s influence on Peter Parker paints the full portrait. Here, one question only: who played her, and who lent her their voice.

This table covers only live action and the stage. The cartoon, Spider-Verse and video game voices are further down, along with the French dubbing voices. For the full cast of each film, our page All the casts of the Spider-Man films brings together the casting film by film.

Where does Mary Jane Watson come from?

Before she had a face on screen, Mary Jane was a mystery in the comics for a long time. She starts out as a running joke: Aunt May wants to introduce her to Peter as early as issue 15 of The Amazing Spider-Man, in August 1964, and Peter dodges her every time. She appears with her face hidden by a plant in issue 25, in June 1965, before her face is finally shown in issue 42, in November 1966, drawn by John Romita Sr. An entrance delayed by more than two years.

The rest of her story on the page, up to her marriage to Peter, is told in The Wedding, the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane, and the comics have even imagined a Mary Jane bitten in place of Peter, which we cover in Spider-MJ. Her family has its own figures too, such as her aunt Anna Watson.

Pixel Art Spider-Man and Mary Jane

A mosaic-dot picture bringing Spider-Man and Mary Jane together in close-up, in reds and golds: a piece of decor for fans of the couple formed by Peter and Mary Jane.

View the product — from €99.90

This kind of picture joins the other designs in our Spider-Man pixel art collection, to hang in a fan’s bedroom or an office.

Kirsten Dunst, Sam Raimi’s Mary Jane

Kirsten Dunst plays Mary Jane Watson in the three films of Sam Raimi’s trilogy: Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). She stars opposite Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker.

The role could have gone to another actress. Elizabeth Banks auditioned for Mary Jane; producer Laura Ziskin judged her ‘too old’ for the part, and she was offered Betty Brant instead, a role she plays in all three films. Kirsten Dunst also voiced Mary Jane in the Spider-Man 2 (2004) video game based on the film; in the two other games adapted from the trilogy, it is Cat O’Conner (2002) and then Kari Wahlgren (2007) who voice her.

Spider-Man Mask - Tobey Maguire

A red mask with a silver web and black-rimmed mesh lenses, in the style of the Spider-Man from Sam Raimi’s trilogy, the one who shares the screen with Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane.

View the product — €99.90

Kirsten Dunst does not appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), contrary to what the rumours before release suggested. Mary Jane is only mentioned there by Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker: he describes their relationship as ‘complicated’, before adding that they eventually found their balance. Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane does, however, make a brief appearance in Across the Spider-Verse (2023), in the form of archive footage from the 2002 film: no scene was shot for the occasion. Sam Raimi’s three films can all be found in our Spider-Man DVDs and Blu-rays section.

Shailene Woodley, the Mary Jane cut from the film

This is a little-known episode in the character’s history. Shailene Woodley was cast to play Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), the sequel to the 2012 reboot with Andrew Garfield. Her casting was reported in October 2012, and she really did shoot scenes opposite him. So she was not merely ‘considered’: she played Mary Jane in front of the camera, but the finished cut never shows her.

Marc Webb spoke of a creative decision: tightening the story around Peter and Gwen Stacy and their relationship. He specified that only a few scenes had been shot with Mary Jane. Shailene Woodley said she was disappointed at the time, while finding it understandable, given the plot, to push Mary Jane’s arrival back to the next film. That film never happened: we explain why in why Amazing Spider-Man 3 never saw the light of day. The duel between the two heroines, meanwhile, carries on in Gwen Stacy vs Mary Jane.

The actress came back to this episode much later. In late August 2026, in an interview for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s ‘Conversations’ series, the organisation tied to the American actors’ union, she recounted learning by telephone that her scenes had been cut, joking that perhaps she had simply been bad.

Zendaya: MJ, but not Mary Jane Watson

In the MCU, Zendaya does not play Mary Jane Watson but an original character, Michelle, nicknamed MJ, conceived as a nod to the Mary Jane of the comics. Kevin Feige spoke of a ‘homage’, and Homecoming co-writer John Francis Daley of a reinvention of the character. The name is revealed in stages, film after film.

At the end of No Way Home, Doctor Strange’s spell erases Peter Parker from everyone’s memory, MJ included; Peter comes to see her again, but gives up on introducing himself a second time. We look at that ending in detail in Does MJ remember Peter Parker at the end of No Way Home?, and the full portrait of the character, film by film, is in Michelle Jones (MJ): who the mysterious MJ really is. To follow the order of the films from Homecoming to Brand New Day, see the list of MCU films in order.

Spider-Man Couple T-Shirt

A faded black t-shirt with a print styled after an Amazing Spider-Man comic cover, to wear as a pair, as a nod to Peter and Mary Jane.

View the product — €29.90

Fan couples will find other pieces to wear together in our Spider-Man t-shirts for women and Spider-Man pyjamas for adults sections.

On stage and on television: Broadway and the 1977 series

Mary Jane has sung, too. For the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the first Mary Jane announced was Evan Rachel Wood, in June 2009; she left the project in March 2010 because of production delays, without ever setting foot on stage. It was Jennifer Damiano who originated the role at the Foxwoods Theatre on Broadway: she played it from the previews onwards, starting 28/11/2010, then at the official opening night on 14/06/2011. She gave her final performance on 06/11/2011.

On television, by contrast, Mary Jane does not appear in The Amazing Spider-Man series broadcast on CBS from 1977 to 1979, with Nicholas Hammond. The main female roles there are Rita Conway, played by Chip Fields, and, in series 2, Julie Masters, played by Ellen Bry, a character invented for television. So there is no point looking for a Mary Jane in that show.

Mary Jane’s voices in the cartoons

In animation, Mary Jane has had almost as many voices as there have been series. Here are the confirmed original voices, from the 1967 cartoon to the recent shows.

Tara Strong has reprised the character in several Marvel productions, including Marvel Rising. To place Mary Jane among the other people close to Peter, from aunts to secondary school friends, our page the complete universe of the characters presents everyone around him, and our page on Peter Parker looks at the man behind the mask.

Spider-Verse and video games: who voices Mary Jane?

In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Zoë Kravitz voices Mary Jane, called ‘MJ Parker’: she is the widow of the Peter Parker of Miles Morales’s universe. Peter B. Parker’s Mary Jane, his ex-wife, also appears, but without a single line. In Across the Spider-Verse (2023), that Mary Jane of Peter B. Parker, now his wife and the mother of their daughter Mayday, is voiced by Melissa Sturm; another Mary Jane, a member of Gwen Stacy’s rock band, is voiced by Nicole Delaney. Zoë Kravitz therefore does not return in this film.

In Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018), Mary Jane is a journalist at the Daily Bugle and the player controls her in certain sequences. Laura Bailey returns in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023), where MJ is playable again and where a symbiote turns her into Scream. In Miles Morales (2020), she is only mentioned: Peter leaves New York for Symkaria to help her on a report. The main games are presented on our page Spider-Man video games, and the controllers get dressed up with our Spider-Man PS5 cases.

The French voices of Mary Jane and MJ

In the French version of Spider-Man (2002), Kirsten Dunst is voiced by Marie-Eugénie Maréchal, who is her regular French voice. On the MCU side, Zendaya’s usual French voice is Victoria Grosbois, who voices her in Homecoming, Far From Home and No Way Home. In Quebec, Zendaya is voiced by Célia Gouin-Arsenault.

The French actors who dub Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland as Peter Parker are presented in who voices Spider-Man in French.

What you often read about Mary Jane, and what is wrong

Why so much confusion? Because several characters cross paths under the same initials: the Mary Jane Watson of the comics and of Sam Raimi, the Michelle Jones-Watson of the MCU, and the various Mary Janes of the animated multiverse. Add an actress cut from the film and rumours of a return with every new release, and the mistakes multiply. Here are the most common ones.

In live action, then, Mary Jane Watson has had only one performer on screen, Kirsten Dunst; Shailene Woodley was cut from the film, and Zendaya plays an heir to the name who goes by another one, Michelle Jones-Watson. To relive Peter’s love stories, read the love life of Spider-Man, from Gwen Stacy to MJ, and to place each film in order, our guide to the Spider-Man films.

Key points