The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the 21-year-old actress and her character Mary Jane Watson have been cut from Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Woodley only appeared in three scenes that were shot over the course of three days, but the article claims that Webb "decided to streamline the story."
It seems Mary Jane will now be held off until The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in 2016, announced earlier this week with a planned fourth film.
"I made a creative decision to streamline the story and focus on Peter and Gwen and their relationship," said Webb. "Shailene is an incredibly talented actress, and while we only shot a few scenes with Mary Jane, we all love working with her."
"Of course I'm bummed," Woodley said to Entertainment Weekly, which first broke the story. "But I'm a firm believer in everything happening for a specific reason. Based on the proposed plot, I completely understand holding off on introducing [Mary Jane] until the next film."
With Woodley's additional commitments as the star of the Divergent film trilogy, it seems unlikely that she will return for the fast-tracked Spider-Man sequels. However, the negative reaction from some comics fans could have factored into the decision to edit Mary Jane from the second movie and possibly recast the role. Hopefully we'll get to see Woodley's deleted scenes on the Amazing Spider-Man 2 Blu-Ray/DVD release.