Audiences will discover how Aunt May responds to Peter being a superhero in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but they might not be expecting her reaction. It didn't take long for May to uncover Peter's big secret in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, the web-slinger's very first solo MCU adventure, Spider-Man: Homecoming, ended with a funny moment where May inadvertently learns the truth about Pete... only for her, ahem, colorful response to be edited as the film crash-cuts to its end credits. Still, it left everyone wondering what, exactly, May plans to do with this newfound knowledge.
Last year's Avengers: Infinity War didn't shine any light on the matter, but for good reason. Peter barely had time to suit up in the film before he was on his way to fighting Thanos in outer space, alongside his mentor Tony Stark and a few other superheroes. Homecoming and Far From Home director Jon Watts recently confirmed that May was "dusted" by Thanos' snap in Infinity War, so she's only just come back (like Peter) when the Spider-sequel picks up, in the wake of April's Avengers: Endgame. However, that doesn't mean she hasn't already given thought to Pete's future as an Avenger.
When we spoke to Far From Home producer Eric Carroll on the film's set, he said Marisa Tomei pitched several ideas about May's reaction to Peter being Spider-Man in the MCU. Ultimately, the movie's creatives went with her pitch that May is a social activist who recruits her nephew to help with her causes (incognito as Spider-Man, naturally):
Marisa, herself, has pitched a lot of fun ideas about May's sensibilities. And one was, we were asking her where we could take this relationship - because again, we want to do something different than just having her be the doting grand-matron sitting at home worrying about her nephew, "is he going to be okay?" And she was like, "Well, what if she's an activist and what if she's like 'This is great! Oh my gosh, you should drop out of school. You could be like, the face of the Red Cross. You could carry all this money doing fundraisers. We've gotta sell your Xbox, you're never going to have time to play Playstation anymore. Like, you've got to spend all your time helping people and generating money for worthy causes and stuff.'" So, we think that's a fun take on it. Because of course, she knows his secret now, as we saw at the end of the last movie. And that's something we wanted to play with on this one.
The Far From Home teaser trailer offered a small glimpse of this, showing May and Peter (dressed as Spider-Man) at an event in support of the homeless. Of course, just because May is using Pete to do even more good for his community, that doesn't mean she's not concerned about his safety when he's out fighting criminals on the streets of New York. As the web-slinger himself, Tom Holland, told us on the Far From Home set, "When we find May the first time, she's kind of [pushing] Peter on. There’s a very funny line where she's talking about, ‘I hope you have taken down some crime family.’ So she’s kind of in on it". He went on to explain that May isn't too worried when Pete's flying around fighting common crooks as Spider-Man, knowing there's little they can actually do to harm him (especially, now that he has the Iron Spider armor). However, when it comes to his bigger foes, Holland said "I think she’s just as worried as she was in the first one".
For better or worse, though, May and Peter will be miles apart for the majority of Far From Home. The sequel follows Peter as he takes a trip to Europe with his friends, in an effort to relax a bit and lick his wounds after everything that happened in Endgame. Unfortunately for Pete, he's followed by trouble in the form of Nick Fury, Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio, and a collection of mysterious creatures known as Elementals. May might be more focused on social causes than worrying about her nephew when he's foiling robberies in New York, but it's safe to assume she'll be concerned when she sees footage of him battling gigantic monsters across the pond.
