Recently Sony and Marvel finally revealed that rising British star Tom Holland would be playing their new Spider-Man. Now we’re hearing word of who will be playing the crucial of his Aunt May in the sequel/reboot.
Variety reports that Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei is the studios’ top choice to play Aunt May in the upcoming film which will introduce us to the new Peter Parker already fully-formed, so to speak, as Spidey instead of giving us yet another origin story (thank god!). The role of Aunt May has previously been played by Rosemary Harris in Sam Raimi’s trilogy and by Sally Field in the recent Amazing Spider-Man movies.
Despite Tomei being a very fine actress, the bone of contention for some comic book purists will be that she simply looks nothing like the traditional Aunt May, not to mention she’s considerably younger than the character as written/drawn; Tomei is 50 (although certainly doesn’t look it!) and while Aunt May’s age is conspicuously hidden, she is most definitely a lot older than that.
It’s a shame that moving forward with a new vision of the character means that characters have to be recast. For all their faults, I thought Field did an excellent job as the character in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2; there’s talk of them bringing back J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and if that comes to fruition couldn’t they have done the same with Field?
Predictably neither Marvel nor Sony commented on Tomei’s potential casting, which suggests things are still being worked out. However, she would be a fine choice – I think it’s actually written in stone somewhere in Hollywood that if you can get Marisa Tomei in your movie then you get Marisa Tomei in your movie. She’s not generally one for big blockbuster movies, having appeared in the likes of My Cousin Vinny (for which she won her Oscar), The Ides of March and The Wrestler, so this would definitely make a big change for her career-wise.
Cop Car director Tom Watts is at the helm for the new Spider-Man and he will also co-write the script. The studios are on the lookout for another writer to co-write the script with him but insiders say they’re waiting to lock down other key actors before they move forward with anything else.
Interestingly, Holland will make his debut appearance as the masked webslinger in Captain America: Civil War but it’s looking likely that Tomei, if cast, won’t make her first appearance in the MCU until the new solo Spider-Man film on July 28th, 2017.
Tomei can next be seen in comedy Trainwreck opposite Amy Schumer and Bill Hader.
Source: Variety
