Alfred Molina, who played Doctor Otto Octavius in the 2004 Spider-Man 2 film, confirmed that he will be playing the role once more.
In an interview with Variety, Molina shared that he will be back as the notorious villain in the upcoming MCU film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, which stars Tom Holland.
In director Sam Raimi’s 2004 film, Doctor Otto Octavius is a scientist who became the murderous villain Doctor Octopus, or Doc Ock, when a lab accident fused him with the four mechanical tentacles on his back. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man then had to stop him when the villain’s experimental fusion reactor became a threat to the city of New York.
“It was wonderful,” Molina said in the interview. “It was very interesting going back after 17 years to play the same role, given that in the intervening years, I now have two chins, a wattle, crow’s feet, and a slightly a slightly dodgy lower back.”
Doc Ock’s Age
The actor also revealed that the new film will pick up Doc Ock’s story moments before his demise in the 2004 film. This meant that the Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2 will be the same age as the Doc Ock in No Way Home.
When he asked No Way Home director Jon Watts about the age difference, Molina said that Watts “just looked at me, and said, ‘Did you see what we did to Bob Downey Jr. and Sam Jackson?’”
The director referred to the scenes where they’ve de-aged characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe– Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in Captain Marvel.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third installment to the MCU’s Spider-Man franchise. Besides Doctor Octopus, it has also been rumored that Electro and Rhino from The Amazing Spider-Man films are also set to appear in No Way Home. If confirmed, this officially ties the three separate film franchises in the upcoming film, backing up fan theories that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will also reprise their roles as Peter Parker from the different parts of the multiverse.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is set for release on December 17, 2021. It also stars Zendaya and Jacob Batalon alongside Tom Holland.
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