About nine months ago, a report suggested that Zendaya's character in Spider-Man: Homecoming would be known as Michelle, at least until the very last minute. At that point, her name would be revealed as MJ, short for Mary Jane Watson. Some fans reacted so negatively to the idea that James Gunn and Stan Lee came forward to defend it, but there were also fans who were so excited about the rumor that they continued to believe it, despite the actress's repeated denial that she was playing either a Peter Parker love interest or MJ.
While speaking to MTV News correspondents Gaby Wilson and Josh Horowitz, Zendaya reiterated that she was being completely honest when she said that her character in the upcoming Jon Watts flick would be none other than Michelle:
My character is 100 percent Michelle; that's her name. I promise I'm not lying. And she's definitely a different character.
The former Disney Channel star added that her Spider-Man: Homecoming character had likable qualities that MJ didn't share:
This is a character I can have fun with and just really create what I wanted to make her, and the director had a lot of really cool ideas about how to make her weird and interesting and cool. She says weird things at the wrong time, but that's why people like her"¦She's like my spirit animal, how I feel on the inside.
Of course, from what we've seen in the trailers and the recently released clip, we can say that Zendaya's character is as "weird and interesting and cool" as she described. She’s nothing like the Mary Jane Watson we know from the pages of Marvel Comics.
Spider-Man: Homecoming will be released in less than two months, so if you’re still questioning the identity of Zendaya's character, you won't have to wait long to learn the truth.
