This did not end up being the case, but it turns out that at one time a different villain killed Aunt May in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Spidey's MCU threequel is just over a year old and fans are still reeling from the Mutlviersal epic, and the carnage the likes of Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman, and the Lizard caused for Tom Holland's Peter Parker.
However, as time goes by and more and more gets revealed about the film, it seems that there were plenty of earlier iterations of the No Way Home story that never saw the light of day. Last year it was revealed that at one point the death of Marsa Tomei's Aunt May looked a little different, with the "with great power comes great responsibility" line coming in the back of an ambulance.
However, now it has been brought to light that this tragic scene could have looked even more different.
Mysterio vs Spider-Man in No Way Home
According to newly posted images from Spider-Man: No Way Home storyboard artist Phil Langone, Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio was, at one point, responsible for Aunt May's death in the Spidey threequel.
Langone posted a collection of storyboards from the scene on his Instagram, showing a fight between Tom Holland's wall-crawler and Gyllenhaal's MCU villain.
According to the caption accompanying these images, the showdown took place "under an elevated train next to Peter’s school," with J.K Simmons' J. Jonah Jamison on location as "a TMZ style street reporter."
Langone wrote that part of the idea being explored in this iteration of May's death was Spider-Man's golden rule of not wanting to kill anyone being pushed to the limit.
The storyboard artist said that this sequence would have seen Holland's young hero being pushed into "berserker mode," brutally laying into Gyllenhaal's Mysterio.
The whole thing would have culminated in Peter unleashing his rage as he "wails on the fishbowl" atop Mysterio's head.
Obviously, this sequence never made it into the film, and Langone noted that even the storyboarding process was "kind of never finished," but he did mention that it was "fun to play with" as an idea.
The full chronological sequence of the action-packed storyboards can be watched below:
Why Was Mysterio Cut From No Way Home?
Despite not really appearing in the movie (aside from a brief cameo revealing Peter's identity in the first few minutes), Mysterio sure had a lot of cut content from No Way Home.
Whether it be full-on deleted scenes or sequences that never even made it in front of the camera, Gyllenhaal's Spider-Man: Far From Home villain looked to have been meant to play a bigger part in the threequel.
So why exactly was he cut from the extensive roster of No Way Home villains?
Well, one of the likely cases was before Willem Dafoe signed on to reprise his role as Green Goblin, Quentin Beck (aka Mysterio) was meant to be the main villain of the super-powered blockbuster.
With Doctor Strange playing such a big part in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Mysterio would have made a lot of sense to have reappeared, perhaps even doing battle with the MCU's good doctor.
But when Dafoe was 100% locked in it became clear that it was - in the film's writer's words - "necessary" - he be the main antagonist going up against Tom Holland's Peter Parker.
Of course, that is all speculation but there is no denying that Mysterio at one time or another was going to play an even bigger role in the web-slinging sequel.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is available for purchase now.
