Spider-Man Star Kirsten Dunst Would Return to Superhero Movies, "You Get Paid a Lot of Money"

Spider-Man Trilogy star Kirsten Dunst isn't opposed to making a return to the superhero movie genre – but she'd totally be in it for the money, and she's not shy about saying so. 

Kirsten Dunst was doing an interview with Marie Claire recently, where the conversation ran back through her career path, including all those years spent in the spotlight of the Spider-Man franchise. Dunst (who played Mary Jane Watson) and her co-stars Tobey Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) and James Franco (Harry Osborn) were at the forefront of ushering in the era of superhero blockbusters – but Dunst has been conspicuously absent from pretty much every kind of blockbuster movie there is since she did Spider-Man 3 back in 2007. She's been played quietly suffering and/or complex women in films like Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011); Leslie Headland's Bachelorette (2012); the African-American biopic Hidden Figures, and even a season of FX's Fargo TV series. All projects that heavily hint at Kirsten Dunst being done with mainstream franchises for good. 

Flash-forward to 2024, where there is a clear market for superhero movie nostalgia, now that films like Spider-Man are over 20 years old. Marvel Studios has been quietly but surely tapping former Marvel movie stars to re-appear in character for new Marvel Cinematic Universe projects – including Tobey Maguire, who put on the Spider-Man suit again for Marvel and Sony's event film Spider-Man: No Way Home, helping current MCU Spider-Man Tom Holland and middle-man Spider-Man Andrew Garfield swing the franchise to a $1.9 billion box office following the COVID pandemic. 

 With Marvel Studios currently in the era of their "Multiverse Saga" story arc, the door has been left wide open for virtually any Marvel movie actor (of any era) to have anything from a cameo to a major role in upcoming MCU films and TV shows.  So would Kirsten Dunst take the opportunity to return as Mary Jane – or take on a role in any other superhero movie that might come her way (like James Gunn's DC Studios)? 

In a word: Yes," Dunst said, "Because you get paid a lot of money, and I have two children, and I support my mother."

That level of candor is uncommon from a Hollywood star – and social media quickly re-crowned Dunst for it, with fans calling her a "real one" for stating that the financial benefits would outweigh her artistic preferences. 

So, it seems that when it comes to getting Kirsten Dunst in a superhero movie again, the ball is sitting in Marvel's (or DC's) court. 

Scroll below to check out comic book movie fans praising Dunst for her honesty: