Otto Octavius (film character)
Otto Octavius is a fictional character portrayed by Alfred Molina in "Spider-Man 2" (2004) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "" (2021), based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Octavius is introduced in "Spider-Man 2" as a nuclear physicist and friend and mentor of Peter Parker, whose research into fusion power with his wife Rosie (portrayed by Donna Murphy) is being sponsored by Oscorp's genetic and scientific research division, headed by Harry Osborn. When Octavius' fusion reactor experiment using tritium becomes unstable, resulting in Rosie's death, the harness of  powerful robotic tentacle arms equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) which he was using to safely handle the materials is fused to his body, burning the inhibitor chip keeping the arms from controlling his nervous system. After ending up in the hospital and massacring the surgeons attempting to save Octavius by sawing them off, the arms' AI convince him to steal funds in order to attempt the experiment again, over the course of which crime spree the "Daily Bugle" dubs him Doctor Octopus, or "Doc Ock" for short. Along the way, he comes into conflict with Spider-Man, with Osborn offering  to give Octavius the tritium he needs to complete his experiment in exchange for handing him over to him. Ultimately, as the experiment begins to destroy New York City, Spider-Man reveals himself as Peter to Octavius after damaging his arms, and inspires him to regain control of them and sacrifice himself to sink the fusion reactor into the East River, where he presumably drowns. The character returns in "Spider-Man: No Way Home", being transported into another universe shortly before his death, due to a magic spell gone wrong, and ends up clashing with that universe's Spider-Man  and his allies. After Spider-Man replaces his faulty inhibitor chip with a working one, Octavius regains control of his arms like he did before his original death, and joins Spider-Man and two alternate versions of him in fighting other universe-displaced supervillains, including Octavius' former colleague and Harry's father Norman. After briefly reuniting with his version of Spider-Man, now older, Octavius is returned to his universe. Molina has expressed further interest in reprising the role in the in-development Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) film based on The Sinister Six. Molina's performance as the  character, considered one of the earliest portrayals of Octavius as a tragic villain, has been positively received by critics and audiences, and the character has come to be considered to be one of the most iconic villains in superhero films. Concept and creation. The character of Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus first appeared in print in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #3 (July 1963), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Lee recounted: "usually in creating a villain the first thing I would think of was a name, and then I would try to think of, 'Well, now  that I've got the name, who's the character going to be and what will he do?' For some reason, I thought of an octopus. I thought, 'I want to call somebody Octopus. And I want him to have a couple of extra arms just for fun'. But I had to figure out how to do that". The character soon re-appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #11-12 and then again in #31-33, becoming a fan favorite. Otto Octavius was originally intended to be the secondary antagonist of "Spider-Man" (2002), but director Sam Raimi eventually dropped  the concept in favor of spending more time with Harry and Norman Osborn. Raimi decided to use Octavius as the main antagonist of "Spider-Man 2" (2004) due to being both a visually interesting villain and a character who could be seen as sympathetic. Several actors were considered for the role, including Alfred Molina, Ed Harris, Chris Cooper (who would later portray Norman Osborn in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"), Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro; In February 2003, Molina was cast as Octavius for the film, undergoing physical training for the role. Raimi had been impressed by his performance  in "Frida" (2002) and also felt that his large physical size was true to the comic book character. Molina was unaware that he was a strong contender for the role, only briefly discussing it. He was excited to get the role, being a big fan of Marvel Comics. Although he was not familiar with Doc Ock, Molina wanted to maintain the cruel, sardonic sense of humor the character had in the comics. Special effects. To create Doctor Octopus' mechanical tentacles, Edge FX was hired to create a corset, a metal and rubber girdle, a rubber spine and four foam rubber  tentacles which were long and altogether weighed . The claws of each tentacle, which were called "death flowers", were controlled by one puppeteer sitting on a chair. Each tentacle was controlled by four people, who rehearsed every scene with Molina so that they could give a natural sense of movement as if the tentacles were moving due to Octavius' muscle movement. On set, Molina referred to his tentacles as "Larry", "Harry", "Moe" and "Flo". For "" (2021), Doctor Octopus' mechanical tentacles were created through CGI instead of puppetry. According to Tom Holland, Molina had to subsequently "relearn" how to act using them . Return of the character. Molina first expressed interest in portraying the character again in "The Amazing Spider-Man" series. In an August 2014 interview, while promoting "Love Is Strange" (2014), Molina expressed his openness to return as Doctor Octopus in a film based on the Sinister Six, then-intended for a 2016 release, after the character's appearance in that film was teased at the end of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" (2014), but reflected that the filmmakers could choose to go for another actor. By September 2019, an untitled The Sinister Six film had re-entered development, Amy Pascal  stating the following October that it would feature villains of Marvel Studios' "Spider-Man" films. By September 2021, the film was confirmed to be in active development, to be set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. After "The Amazing Spider-Man" film series was cancelled, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced in February 2015 that Spider-Man would appear in the MCU, with the character appearing in an MCU film and Sony releasing a "Spider-Man" film co-produced by Feige and Pascal. Sony Pictures would continue to own, finance, distribute, and exercise final creative control over the "Spider-Man  films. For the first few films, it was always, 'How do we do things that have never been done before?' It did not occur to us to do a new Goblin story, or to do an Oscorp story, or to do Doc Ock, or anyone that had been done before, which is why Vulture and Mysterio were really the key characters," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reflected. Feige conceded "you can't get better than Alfred Molina as Doc Ock" and furthered that if they "were ever going to bring Doc Ock back, it would have to be Alfred Molina  and in early development on this third "Homecoming" movie, we realized that thanks to the MCU, there was a way to do that." In December 2020, it was reported that Molina would reprise his role as the character in "" (2021), which is intended to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In April 2021, Molina confirmed his involvement with film, calling it "wonderful" to reprise his role. He also revealed that Octavius's story in the film would pick up mere moments after the events of "Spider-Man 2". Molina was digitally de-aged in the film to resemble how  he appeared in 2004, despite his concerns about his fighting style not looking realistic due to his age in a similar way to Robert De Niro's character in "The Irishman" (2019). Fictional character biography. Early life. Otto Octavius is a brilliant nuclear physicist and a scientific idol of Peter Parker, who aims to write his college paper on him. His work is connected to and funded by Oscorp, run by Norman Osborn, whom Octavius knew. Years later, Osborn would become the Green Goblin after an experiment involving super-soldiers gone wrong and die while fighting Spider-Man, Octavius later  attended his funeral. Despite this, Octavius continues his work with his wife, Rosie. Becoming Doctor Octopus. Two years later, Parker meets Octavius through Norman's son Harry Osborn. Octavius initially dismisses Parker until he remembers that Oscorp funds his research and that Parker is the "brilliant but lazy" student of Dr. Curt Connors, after which Octavius takes a liking to Parker because of his intelligence and shared interests. Octavius creates an artificial sun with four mechanical tentacles controlled by a back-mounted harness and a neural inhibitor chip on his neck as part of a fusion reactor experiment using tritium . However, the experiment goes awry, resulting in Rosie's death, the harness being fused to his body, and the inhibitor chip controlling the arms being destroyed. Octavius ends up in the hospital, but the arms' artificial intelligence (AI) massacre the surgeons attempting to save him and convince him to steal funds and attempt the experiment again. Along the way, he comes into conflict with Spider-Man and offers to bring him to Harry in exchange for more tritium. To lure Spider-Man, Octavius kidnaps Mary Jane Watson and battles him atop an elevated train, which he sends careening out of  control. Octavius takes Spider-Man captive, delivers him to Harry, keeps Watson as a hostage, and begins another attempt at the fusion reactor experiment. Spider-Man arrives to stop him and damages the arms before revealing his identity as Parker to remind Octavius of how he believed intelligence should be used for good. Inspired by Parker's words, Octavius regains control of his arms and sacrifices himself to sink the fusion reactor into the East River. Entering a different reality. In an alternate reality, Dr. Stephen Strange casts a spell to erase people's memories of Peter Parker (dubbed "Peter -One")'s identity as Spider-Man, but Peter-One's frequent alterations causes the spell to bring in people from across the multiverse who knew Parker's identity, including Octavius moments before his death. After being transported to this new reality, the arms' AI retakes control of Octavius, and he encounters Peter-One on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. Believing Peter-One is his Spider-Man, Octavius battles him and steals a piece of his nanotechnological Iron Spider suit, upgrading his arms. After discovering Peter-One is not his Parker, Octavius loses control of his arms when Peter-One uses the  stolen nanotechnology to hack into them. Peter-One interrogates Octavius, but they are interrupted by the Green Goblin, whom Octavius recognizes as Osborn. Strange teleports the two of them to the Sanctum Sanctorum and locks Octavius in a cell next to an alternate version of Curt Connors. Later, Octavius meets Max Dillon and Flint Marko, and reunites with Osborn; the two learn from Marko that they both died while fighting their Spider-Man. When Peter-One offers to cure the villains, Octavius is reluctant, believing he does not need fixing. Nonetheless, Peter-One and Osborn give him a new inhibitor  chip, giving Octavius his humanity and control over his arms back. Seeing the similarities between Peter-One and his own, a grateful Octavius offers to help cure the remaining villains, but Osborn's Goblin personality takes control and convinces the uncured villains to fight back. Octavius attempts to stop them, but is blasted out of a building by Dillon and forced to escape. Later on, Octavius reunites with Peter-One and his version of Parker (nicknamed "Peter-Two") before joining forces with them and a third version of Parker (nicknamed "Peter-Three") to cure Dillon and fight back against the  Goblin. Afterwards, Strange returns the displaced individuals back to their native universes, with Octavius taking an arc reactor back with him. Reception and legacy. Alfred Molina's role in "Spider-Man 2" was widely well-received. In May 2014, "IndieWire" ranked him as the 5th greatest film supervillain of all time. Additionally, Abraham Riesman of Vulture.com in his February 2018 list placed the character as number 16 in the rank of his 25 greatest movie supervillains. The special effects used for his robotic arms were also praised, with Roger Ebert calling it the film's "special-effects triumph". In "Chicago  Tribune" Mark Caro stated that Octavius was a "pleasingly complex" villain in "Spider-Man 2", with Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" concurring with Caro, opining, "Doc Ock grabs this film with his quartet of sinisterly serpentine mechanical arms and refuses to let go." "IGN" Richard George felt "Sam Raimi and his writing team delivered an iconic, compelling version of Spider-Man's classic foe... We almost wish there was a way to retroactively add some of these elements to the original character." "Empire" also praised Octavius as a "superior villain" in 2015. The character’s revival in "" (2021 ) was spotlighted before the release of the film with a trailer. The reveal was cited as a highlight and inspired various internet memes of the scene of Octavius saying "Hello, Peter". Looking back at the Sam Raimi trilogy, Tom Holland, who portrays Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, praised Molina's performance in "Spider-Man 2", noting that he was initially terrified of the character back when he saw "Spider-Man 2" for the first time. Holland later expressed his enjoyment at later working with Molina in "Spider-Man: No Way Home", calling Molina "one of [his] favorite people  [he]'s ever worked with". Neil Soans, Peter Travers, and Jade King singled out Norman Osborn portrayer Willem Dafoe and Molina for praise, King asserting that the two stole "the show as Green Goblin and Doc Ock" and were "brilliant depictions of these characters". Awards and nominations. Molina has received many nominations and awards for his portrayal of Otto Octavius.