Legitimately interesting "Spider-Man" news

I am not biased against the idea of rebooting "Spider-Man." I'm biased against movies that sound like terrible ideas, or movies made for dubious reasons primarily by people for whom quality is waaaay down low on the list of priorities. That a remake of a movie that's not even ten years old, less than two years after it's most-recent sequel, which only exists in the first place because shortsighted producers screwed over a creative team twice, fits into that category is hardly something I have control over.

ALSO not my fault or problem: The fact that there hasn't been a shred of news since it was announced that hasn't ranged from bad to irrelevant - good talented being scooped up doesn't mean much when the film is being largely driven by people seemingly bound and determined to make a bad (but profitable movie.)

But NOW, finally, one piece of actually interesting, quasi-positive news. Buried in TheWrap's reporting about Martin Sheen and Sally Field being sought for Uncle Ben and Aunt May is a fairly big reveal: Who's playing Mary-Jane Watson? Nobody. She's not in it.

This isn't an indicator of anything, but it's significant for two reasons. Firstly, people who followed the development on the original films will recall that oldschool-Spidey purist Sam Raimi had wanted to use Gwen Stacy as the love-interest since the first one but was "encouraged" to use MJ because she was the more "known" character. Of course, that was before Marvel spent three years (and counting) of stories to get her largely OUT of the franchise, so... whatever.

More significantly, it calls into question what "form" the film is taking. It was an open secret, when the reboot was announced, that the new pitch was "Spider-Man by way of Twilight," with heavy focus on a teenage love-triangle as opposed to superheroics. It had been assumed (and reported) that that meant Gwen and MJ as Edward and Jacob, but if that's not the case then... who? People would've been all over it already if it were Felicia Hardy (The Black Cat) and if it was a "reimagined" teenaged Eddie Brock (Venom) people would've been all over it and annoyed already. So... Harry Osborn, maybe? Flash Thompson, probably?