Marisa Tomei is Spider-Man’s New Aunt May

Hot off the heels of us getting a new Spider-Man, Sony and Marvel Studios have now announced who’ll be playing Spidey’s most famous family member: Aunt May.

She will be portrayed by film veteran Marisa Tomei, who’s appeared in such flicks as The Lincoln Lawyer and The Wrestler. She’ll also be appearing in the upcoming Amy Schumer vehicle, Trainwreck.

Tomei becomes the youngest actor to portray Peter Parker’s aunt on the big screen, and some Twitter users have reacted to this in the most obvious way. We’ll save you the bother of looking: mostly they’re along the lines of “wow, Aunt May is hot now!”

Aunt May
Not much of a resemblance, is there?

Tomei is an Academy Award winning actor for the 1992 film My Cousin Vinny, and has been nominated multiple times.

Sci-fi news blog IO9 have also pointed out that since the original trilogy of Spider-Man films, Aunt May has been cast progressively younger. Tomei, aged 50, is sixteen years younger than Sally Field was when she took the role in Amazing Spider-Man, and twenty five years younger than Rosemary Harris at the time she starred in the Tobey Maguire films.

Some are questioning whether this reflects a growing ageism problem for female actors in Hollywood.

Earlier this month, Sony and Marvel announced Brit Tom Holland for the role of Spider-Man. Holland will play a high school Peter Parker, which might go part of the way towards explaining why the movie studios have cast his aunt so young.

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