At the time of the release of Homecoming, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige tried to downplay the connection, hinting that she’s not really a new twist on the character, but more of a homage to her. He explained to IGN that, “ 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. 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. 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.”