In a surprising (but delightful) move, Sony and Marvel have tapped the lovely Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny, The Wrestler) to play Aunt May in the upcoming Spider-Man reboot opposite Tom Holland. While nothing official has been announced, Variety is reporting that the two studios offered the role to Tomei last week.
Aunt May has traditionally been depicted as the older, wise maternal figure in young Peter Parker’s life. However, the Ultimate Spider-Man version of the character depicted her as a bit more “street smart” and not as fragile or naive as her counterpart. Ideally, Tomei’s Aunt May will be more like the Ultimate Spider-Man version. Tomei doesn’t necessarily fit what most are used to as the “Aunt May-type,” as can be seen by the online backlash from the comic book community. However, as both a comic and film fanatic, I’d love to see what Tomei can bring to the role and for the Spider-Man reboot to shed the cobwebs (hurr hurr) off of what we’ve already grown accustomed to to establish a new status quo for this now third reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise.
This’ll be an interesting career move for Tomei. The actress typically opts for dramatic roles, my favorite of which was Pam in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler. Depending on the writer Sony and Marvel find for the film (they haven’t found/announced one just yet), this could be the best depiction of Spider-Man on the big screen yet.
[via Variety]