Alfred Molina, the English actor who was recently seen in Oscar-nominated film Promising Young Woman, confirmed that he would reprise his role as Doctor Octopus in the upcoming superhero film Spiderman: No Way Home.
He first appeared as the evil supervillain in director Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 2 starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco.
According to Variety, Molina was initially told not to disclose details about his return to the Spiderman universe. He said, “When we were shooting it, we were all under orders not to talk about it, because it was supposed to be some great big secret. But, you know, it’s all over the internet. I actually described myself as the worst kept secret in Hollywood!”
Molina will be reprising the role after 17 years and will be playing the role for the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film’s director, Jon Watts, found a way to bring him back.
“Watts told him that the movie will pick up Doc Ock’s story from ‘that moment’ in the river, which in a franchise that include multiverses, time-travel and diverging timelines seems… plausible enough,” Molina told Variety.
He said his only concern was ageing. Citing Irishman actor Robert De Niro’s example of de-aging in the film, he said that he might not have the same physicality that he did 17 years ago.
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Marvel will be using CGI to de-age the actor, as they did with Samuel L Jackson for Captain Marvel and Robert Downey Jr for Captain America: Civil War.
Spiderman: No Way Home will also see Jamie Foxx reprise his role as Electro, the villain from The Amazing Spiderman 2. Benedict Cumberbatch will appear as Doctor Strange and will be Peter Parker’s new mentor following the demise of Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame.
The film stars Tom Holland and Zendaya in lead roles and is slated to release on December 17.