It Took The MCU 5 Years to Finally Justify Hot Aunt May
What a curious case! Spider-Man: No Way Home's Aunt May is like Benjamin Button. The longer the franchise goes on, the younger Aunt May gets, and many fans have devoted dozens of threads to her sudden change of age.
Portrayed by Marisa Tomei in the MCU films (Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Endgame and the latest Spider-Man: No Way Home), Aunt May is the youngest of the bunch.
She used to be older, and it was Sally Field who played the role for The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
And finally, Aunt May is the oldest (more grandmother than aunt) in Sam Rami's Spider-Man trilogy (Spider-Man, Spider- Man 2 and Spider-Man 3), which dates back to the early 2000s, when the character was played by Rosemary Harris.
After casting the brilliant Marisa Tomei, the MCU execs had to somehow justify why Peter's aunt is suddenly so much younger. Well, in the film, Peter Parker is applying to MIT, and his aunt simply cannot be the classic old lady played by Harris, even though we may have gotten used to the original aunt. In reality, there should be a 35-40 year gap between Peter and his aunt, and Tomei is the closest we could get; after all, not every aunt should look old and tired these days with skin care and various treatments.
According to Spider-Man: Homecoming co-producer Eric Hauserman Carroll, the MCU creative team did want somebody who would be a little closer in age to Peter Parker for the MCU…someone who was almost more of a "big sister." This is not to mention that most of the fans refer to Tomei as a hottie – exactly what the MCU showrunners should have had in mind if they wanted to attract new fans to the franchise.
"To be honest I prefer hot Aunt May to Grandma Aunt May. I never really understood why the old Spider-Man's portrayed aunt made to be an '80s looking little old lady with gray hair. In real life a lot of people's Aunts are 40s something MILFs. I don't see many aunts out there looking like Betty White," one of the MCU fans admitted.
Hot or not, Aunt May dies in Spider-Man: No Way Home - she is killed by the Green Goblin's glider, and the film shows Peter Parker visiting her grave at the end. And guess what? The dates are obscured by flowers because the writers want us to keep speculating about her age.
Harris, Field and Tomei have done a great job portraying Aunt May and you have to take into account the times we live in when looking at the character. After all, the comic was written in the 1960s and a lot has changed since.