Marisa Tomei recently made her return to the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Marvel Studios' take on Aunt May is considerably different from her previous counterparts. She's much younger, active and behaves more like Peter's friend, rather than a mentor. This fresh take on the character has been a well-received addition to the Spider-Man mythos. As it turns out, though, May could have been even more different than previous iterations, as, early on in the development of Spider-Man's MCU movies, Tomei proposed the idea of giving May a girlfriend.
The actress sat down for an interview with Geeks of Color to promote Spider-Man: No Way Home. During their chat, the topic of May's relationship with Happy Hogan came up. Tomei compared the characters getting together to two people being stranded on an island, as their relationship evolved more due to their shared experiences over Peter than a genuine attraction to one another. It was then that she revealed that, prior to the idea of Happy and May getting together came up, she wanted her character to be in a relationship with a woman:
"At one point — this was before even the idea of Happy showed up, there was a moment where I felt that May, maybe she should just be with a woman, because Ben is gone and, who should she be with? And we were kind of talking about it."
She elaborated further, revealing that she wanted Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal to play May's girlfriend as a brief cameo:
"I actually really wanted Amy Pascal from Sony to be my girlfriend. I was like, 'No one even has to know, Amy. I'll just be in a scene and you'll be over there and I'll just be like, 'Hey,'' and it'll just be like a subtle thing."
Giving May a girlfriend would have been a nice addition to her story, but having May be in a relationship with Hogan was also a good route to take her down, as it gave us further insight into her personality and was the source of great comedic moments.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently in theaters.