Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures will soon release arguably the biggest movie of 2021 in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Although the focus will clearly be on Tom Holland's web-slinger and the slew of villains from past Spidey movies that he will face, this story will also put his family and friends in danger, which includes Marisa Tomei's May Parker.
Having first come into the MCU alongside Holland's Peter Parker in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, Tomei has had the opportunity to give Marvel fans a take on the iconic Spider-Man character that differs from any other iteration. This version of Aunt May has helped her nephew through the toughest times in his life, both as a regular kid and a superhero, offering a dynamic that fans haven't seen in other Spider-Man movies.
Moving forward into Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tomei's Aunt May has her own story to look forward to, although some of the teases surrounding her have hinted at the real danger that she'll have to deal with.
Recently, Tomei took the time to look back on how her journey as Aunt May has evolved over the years and spoke about her experience with her latest movie.
Marisa Tomei on Aunt May's Wild MCU Journey
Speaking with Collider, MCU star Marisa Tomei shared some of what she loved about working on Spider-Man: No Way Home and how much she knew about her character's journey throughout the MCU timeline.
Touching on No Way Home, Tomei spoke about her relationship with director Jon Watts and the trust she has from working with him on all three Spider-Man movies. With each new entry, the two "get to...explore more ideas" about where to take Peter Parker's aunt in each story:
"It’s always great to be with Jon Watts. I love him, I trust him so much as a director, and he’s so brilliant and so fun to be around. So, with each installment, I get to know him a little better, and we get to even explore more ideas, ideas that we had from the beginning that might happen later, we can pick up threads together since we’ve had these three films together."
Tomei was then asked about how Marvel Studios first pitched Aunt May's full MCU arc when she signed on to the role in 2015. Tomei candidly admitted that Marvel Studios & Sony "told" her certain plans for Aunt May's future which never came to fruition:
"Well…yeah. I mean, it’s not exactly what I was told from the beginning, but it’s turned out OK."
The topic of the Multiverse also came up in her chat as she was asked if she knew about the Multiverse plotline in No Way Home while shooting prior movies, specifically Spider-Man: Far From Home from 2019. As expected, this was kept a secret until she absolutely had to know what was happening:
"Uh, no. No, no, no, no. I…no. That stuff is so top secret, I’m not told about that stuff until it has to be revealed to me."
Keeping Secrets from Tomei's Aunt May
Although Marisa Tomei's role in the MCU's Spider-Man movies has been a supporting one through the years, it's clear that she's enjoyed developing her character with the trilogy's director, Jon Watts, in that time. Having appeared in all three solo movies after debuting in Captain America: Civil War, fans have seen May develop as an individual just as much as she has alongside her superhero of a nephew.
Of course, with so many projects always planned out for the future within Marvel Studios, one does wonder how much Tomei knew about her fate in a movie as big as No Way Home years ago. Now, with the film nearly ready to release worldwide, Tomei has only known her ultimate destiny in this outing since production for this film started and not a day before.
No matter what May's fate is in the Multiversal mayhem set to come in this movie, she will continue playing a key role in Peter Parker's life as he evolves as a man and a hero.
Spider-Man: No Way Home will debut in theaters on December 17, 2021.
