Its one of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood and so it seems Marvel Studios is no longer trying to hide it – not only will Alfred Molina be reprising his role of Dr. Otto Octavius in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” but the actor has now spoken about his return in detail.
Talking to Variety as part of an interview over his role in “Promising Young Woman,” he says while they were filming he was under orders not to talk about it as it was supposed to be a big secret. Now though, it’s all over the internet and so Molina is able to discuss it.
Molina played the role in 2004’s “Spider-Man 2” for director Sam Raimi, that movie ending with Octavius drowning in the East River alongside his life’s work – a fusion reactor that was threatening New York City.
In their early conversations, Molina was told by director Jon Watts that the movie will pick up directly from the final shot of Doc Ock falling ever deeper into the river. Molina was concerned with a more practical aspect – he was 50 when they shot “Spider-Man 2,” he’s now 67 and has physically changed.
Molina says: “He [Watts] just looked at me, and said, ‘Did you see what we did to Bob Downey Jr. and Sam Jackson?'”. Molina however has also been aware of the limitations of the de-aging tech, such as in Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” but says the nature of the role meant it wasn’t an issue:
“They made Robert De Niro’s face younger [in The Irishman], but when he was fighting, he looked like an older guy. He looked like an old guy! That’s what worried me about doing it again. I don’t have the same physicality that I had 17 years ago. That’s just a fact.
I then remembered that it’s the tentacles that do all the work!. My basic physical move as Doc Ock, as the actor, is just this [glaring]. I just do that a lot, and the arms are doing all the killing and smashing and breaking. I’m just going… with a kind of mean look on my face. It was fantastic.”
Molina calls being back “wonderful” and a “very interesting” to reprise a role seventeen years later. Molina joins other confirmed pre-MCU returnees J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and Jamie Foxx as Electro in a multiverse spanning film that will seemingly unite the three generations of Spider-Man movies.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is currently scheduled to open December 17th 2021.
