When Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures rebooted the Spider-Man franchise in 2016 and reintroduced the web-slinger in Captain America: Civil War, fans were puzzled not only by the fact that Aunt May was being portrayed as a younger woman but as well as Uncle Ben's conspicuous absence in the Parker household. It spawned a ton of theories over the years but it turns out, the MCU purposely tweaked the narrative and presented May as the central figure in Peter's life, the one responsible for him realizing that with great power comes great responsibility.
Now, in the tradition of giving Peter a tragic arc, Spider-Man: No Way Home saw the heartwrenching death of May Parker, suffering the exact same fate Ben Parker did in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's respective worlds. There's no doubt that the MCU version would execute it pretty well but turns out, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers planned a different death sequence for Marisa Tomei's character.
Speaking with Gold Derby, McKenna revealed that COVID-19 played a huge factor in them being forced to change how May's death scene looked. He explains: "It was tricky [to write]. It was also tricky production-wise because we had different ideas for where the scene could take place, but because of Covid [it had to change]. We had one idea that maybe it was going to be inside an ambulance, and we had a whole version that was constructed around that, but that was not practical for shooting during COVID."
Also Read: Here's Why Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire Needed Big Roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home
Thankfully, the writers' initial plan for Aunt May's death scene didn't come to fruition because honestly, it sounded way too underwhelming. It's definitely night and day compared to the one we ended up getting which was more emotionally impactful. I'm glad they went with that one instead.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is still shattering box office records worldwide.
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