Marisa Tomei Wanted 'Spider-Man's Aunt May to Have a Girlfriend

By now, every Spider-Man fan knows that Andrew Garfield wanted the web-slinger to be bisexual, and Tom Holland would have been so down with Spidey coming out as gay, but it turns out there was yet another opportunity for inclusivity in the Spiderverse that we missed out on — Aunt May.

In an interview promoting the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marisa Tomei was asked about the chemistry between her May and Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan, former bodyguard to Tony Stark.

While she said she’s loved working with Favreau, she felt “their relationship was more off than on” and considers them good friends with common goals.

“It’s like being on a desert island,” Tomei said, referencing the fact that both are bonded by their involvement in Peter Parker’s escapades. “There’s no one else they can talk to right now. They like each other enough. They had their fun, their fling, but they’re still cool with each other.”

And that’s when she got real about what she really had wished to see for May — a girlfriend.

“At one point I really — this was before even the idea of Happy showed up — there was a moment where I felt that May was like, maybe she should just be with a woman,” she said. “Because Ben is gone, and who should she be with? And we were kind of talking about it.”

Fans were obsessed with the idea, with many pointing out they already considered Aunt May to be canonically bisexual after she basically wore a gradient bi flag in the film.

The films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been painfully light on canonically queer characters, introducing a gay hero with a family in The Eternals just this year, and having a gay moment so brief in Avengers: Endgame that it's almost offensive that was the first rep the MCU offered. And let’s not forget the scene that confirmed Valkyrie as bisexual…and was cut from Thor: Ragnarok and therefore doesn’t actually count.

But with Aunt May, we could have had some casual inclusion that would have meant a lot to fans who are begging for even scraps at this point, but we didn’t, and people are pointing the finger at Marvel and Disney for denying us this small joy.

One day, maybe Marvel will let us have nice things. But for the time being, we have to go to sleep knowing what could have been.