Now that New New Spider-Man has been cast, Marvel and Sony are turning their eyes toward once again casting Peter Parker’s friends and family, beginning with Aunt May. First played by Rosemary Harris and more recently by Sally Field, Variety is reporting that Marisa Tomei has been offered the role in the three-boot, continuing the trend of Aunt May being played by very talented character actresses. We’re like five years away from Judy Greer taking on the role.
What’s interesting is that there is no mention of Uncle Ben. Marvel is hell bent on this “no origin stories” thing, which is counter-intuitive given how many new characters they’re launching in the next few years. The idea for New New Spider-Man is to introduce Peter Parker after he’s already been bitten by the radioactive spider, which might mean that his uncle Ben is already dead by the time the movie opens. I would be fine with this if it spares us another “with great power comes great responsibility” speech. I know it’s Spider-Man’s signature line, but one of the worst parts of The Amazing Spider-Man was Martin Sheen trying to talk around that phrase. Or maybe they could just let Aunt May be the one to impart that lesson. Marisa Tomei would crush it.
Attached – Tomei front row at the Armani Prive presentation in Paris yesterday.
