A Hollywood insider told the paper, "It had been presumed that Kirsten would sign up for the fourth but she's still not agreed.

She needs to be assured that the story is going to be a strong one, in terms of her character. The films clearly wouldnt be the same without her."

Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is due to hold a private meeting with Dunst in a last ditch attempt to persuade her to rejoin the cast.

"I'm hoping that she is going to come on board and I've got a meeting coming up with her," he confirmed whilst promoting his current film Drag Me To Hell, "I think she would like to but I dont want to speak on her behalf."

I personally would rather not see Kirsten or MJ and instead have the film focus more on Peter as Spider-Man hopefully skipping the numerous dancing scenes that wasted screentime in Spider-Man 3! What do you think - should MJ return or should Gwen instead be the attention of Spidey's affections?