Alfred Molina is remaining tight-lipped about any potential future appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after he got into “hot water” for accidentally spoiling his return in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The 69-year-old British actor made his MCU debut appearance as the villainous Doctor Octopus in 2004’s Spider-Man 2, featuring Tony Macguire as the titular superhero.
Molina later reprised his role in the Tom Holland-led iteration No Way Home.
While Molina’s reappearance in the latest film was intended to surprise audiences, he unknowingly let it slip in an earlier interview.
“I got into a bit of trouble over the last iteration because I happened to let the cat out of the bag quite innocently,” he explained to RadioTimes in a new interview (published on Monday 21 November).
“Just accidentally, I was talking to a journalist who said, ‘So, you know, how’s the Spider-Man movie going?’ And I went, ‘Oh, great thanks’. Then literally the next day, Variety was like, ‘Alfred Molina reveals Doc Ock returns’,” Molina continued.
“And I got into such trouble. I was getting phone calls from [producer] Amy Pascal, [Marvel Studios’ President] Kevin Feige was on the red carpet somewhere and somebody asked him about some Marvel movie and apparently he got a bit snippy and turned around and said, ‘Ask Alfred Molina’,” the Frida star recalled.
“So I got into a little bit of hot water. So that’s the official line – I can neither confirm nor deny,” Molina said in response to whether fans could expect to see him again in any forthcoming MCU films.
In Doc Ock and Spider-Man’s (Holland) final showdown, Doc Ock is seen eventually coming to his senses and drowning himself in a last attempt at redemption.
Since Spider-Man: No Way Home’s release, it’s received a critical rating of 93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. However, just last month, The Game of Thrones actor Maisie Williams called it the “biggest disappointment of the year”.