Speaking with
IGN, Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Sony’s Amy Pascal commented on the actress’ role following the film’s premiere. When asked how the character twist came about, the president of Marvel Studios said the ‘twist’ was really meant to be more of an homage.
“We never even looked at it as a big reveal necessarily but more of just a fun homage to his past adventures and his past love. She's not Mary Jane Watson. She never was Mary Jane Watson. She was always this new high school character, Michelle, who we know there's an "M" in Michelle and an "M" in Mary. [laughs] So we're so clever and we thought, "Wouldn't it be neat if her initials were MJ?" And then I think it leaked that she would be playing MJ and then it became a whole headache for Zendaya to have to navigate,” Feige revealed. “It was never a big, "Oh my God, it's a big reveal!" There are big reveals in the movie. That's not one of them.”
“She is not going to end as being Mary Jane Watson,” Pascal added, confirming Michelle is a character in her own right.
“She's not Mary-Jane Watson,” Feige said before tacking on,
“Is she going to date Peter? Are they going to fall in love? She seems to be intrigued with him. There's a nice chemistry there. Who knows what will happen in the future films?”