Marisa Tomei Could Be The MCU’s Aunt May
By C.T. Smith
With a younger Peter Parker comes a younger Aunt May. Tom Holland has been called upon to take up the role of Spider-Man, and Marisa Tomei may be the latest actress to take on the role of Peter’s loving aunt, Aunt May, alongside Sally Field and Rosemary Harris in the last two iterations of Spider-Man respectively. Out of the three of these May Reillys, Marisa would be the youngest actress to take on the role, at the age of 50 (though she’ll be 52/53 when the Spider-Man film is set to release on July 28th, 2017).
The folks at Variety reported that Sony and Marvel have decided that Tomei is their actress of choice to play Aunt May in the MCU’s Spider-Man franchise. Sony and Marvel have made no official comment on the casting as of yet, but sources say the offer has been made and negotiations are in their final stages. This will be a departure from Tomei’s usual roles, with her filmography mostly consisting of Romantic Comedies/Dramas such as Crazy Stupid Love, Anger Management, and My Cousin Vinny which netted her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1993.
There has been a variety (hah) of responses and initial thoughts to the announcement, and many people are saying that she is simply too young to play old Aunt May, or that Marvel is trying to bring more attraction to May when it is unneeded, while may fans on social media joke that Aunt May is hot now. I for one consider the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an entity separated from the constraints of the comic books and the need for an exact match to the elements of that world. As long as it doesn’t hurt the mythos or the movie itself, let Marvel work their predictive magic. Many of the actors are older than their comic book counterparts, so why can’t someone be younger? It’s not like Aunt May is Grandma May. Tomei has proven acting chops, and I’m completely okay with this casting, if it comes to be.
Stay tuned for updates.