[7] The set-up for Spider-Man and Mary Jane's famous "upside-down kiss" involved several rain-machines at the studio lot, and saw some difficulty as Maguire was hung upside down with water pouring into his nostrils.

[13] No Way Home screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna wrote at various points versions of the film's story that included Mary Jane, alongside appearances of Sally Field's Aunt May and Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy, but Sommers and McKenna ultimately concluded that the story felt already overstuffed, ultimately choosing Zendaya's Michelle "MJ" Jones and Marisa Tomei's Aunt May to be the only female characters in the film with significant screen time.

[14] As portrayed in the Sam Raimi trilogy, Mary Jane Watson is a kind, funny, beautiful, sweet, cheerful, passionate and energetic young woman who is an aspiring actress.

She runs with the stereotypical popular crowd in school, being surrounded by people who have enticing physical features and great skills in ways of performing arts or sports.

Despite her popularity, MJ struggles with insecurity and an urge to impress people she deems important, both of which most likely come from her abusive father, and is an indecisive dater before Peter finally commits to her.

She is depicted as a popular girl at Midtown High School and the girlfriend of star athlete Flash Thompson, while Peter, her next-door neighbor who has had a crush on her since they were in first grade, is an academically gifted but shy outsider.

The Goblin forces Peter to choose between saving Mary Jane and a Roosevelt Island Tramway car full of children, all of whom he holds hostage on top of the Queensboro Bridge.

Struggling to balance his vigilantism as Spider-Man with his personal life, Peter fails to make it to one of Mary Jane's performances of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Fed up with being Spider-Man and after losing his powers, Peter tosses his suit away and is able to handle his job and studies and decides to pursue MJ, though she pushes him away when John proposes to her.

Peter regains his abilities and takes up being the web-slinger once more, fighting Doc Ock on a runaway New York City Subway train before being subdued and delivered to Harry, who wants revenge on Spider-Man for allegedly killing his father.

Peter finally confesses his love for MJ, rescuing her as Doctor Octopus regains control of himself from the malicious AI in his tentacles and repents of his prior actions, sacrificing himself to destroy the reactor.

Having dated Peter for one year, Mary Jane experiences some struggles in her personal life, losing her Broadway role because of bad reviews and experiencing friction with her boyfriend when an alien symbiote takes him over and amplifies the negative traits of his personality which as a result makes him distance himself from her to focus on capturing and killing his uncle's actual killer, Flint Marko.

He then gets into a fight with the club's bouncers and unintentionally hits Mary Jane when she intervenes, leading him to realize what the symbiote suit has turned him into.

He leaves and disposes of the symbiote suit, which subsequently falls onto Eddie Brock, Gwen's failed suitor and Peter's bitter rival and fellow photographer, to create Venom.

Although the symbiote was removed, Peter felt he did too much damage to amend things with Mary Jane as he feels inadequate to propose to her and stares at her apartment window before leaving, thinking she doesn't want to see him again.

After she departs from her apartment, Mary Jane gets kidnapped by Brock, who holds a grudge against Peter for ruining his career as a photographer and taking away his girlfriend, teaming up with Flint Marko to lure and kill Spider-Man.

The subsequent battle pits Spider-Man and the New Goblin against Venom and the Sandman; the two villains are defeated, but Harry loses his life in the process after sacrificing himself to save his friends, dying with MJ and Peter at his side.

[21] In the Los Angeles Times review, critic Kenneth Turan noted that Dunst and Maguire made a real connection on screen, concluding that their relationship "involved audiences to an extent rarely seen in films".

In his review of Spider-Man 3, Ryan Gilbey of the NewStatesman was critical of Dunst's character: "the film-makers couldn't come up with much for Mary Jane to do other than scream a lot".

[23] Allie Gemmill of Bustle wrote in 2017 that the films portray Mary Jane as a constant damsel in distress and gave the illusion that she was defined primarily through the men in her life.