The MCU Nearly Ruined One of the Greatest Marvel Villains

Marvel comics have an endless supply of amazing villains, but the MCU struggled with adapting villains at first. Marvel Studios also didn’t have the rights to some iconic foes, like Doctor Doom, Magneto, Kingpin, Venom, and others. Later, thanks to mergers and expired deals, Marvel Studios eventually regained the rights to the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Daredevil villains. Batman and Spider-Man have the best line-up of villains in comics. The Spider-Man franchise remains with Sony, but a deal between them and Marvel Studios has allowed the MCU to tap into the treasure trove of villains in the Wall Crawler’s lore.

Since Marvel Studios was rebooting Spider-Man for a second time, it decided to focus on bringing unused characters like Vulture and Mysterio to the big screen for the first time instead of reusing the most iconic ones. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home would lean on nostalgia and bring back the villains from past Spider-Man films like Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, The Lizard, Electro, and Sandman. The Spider-Man films set in the MCU have done an excellent job with the villains, yet the handling of Spider-Man’s greatest enemy could’ve been stronger.

Oscorp or Harry Osborn Don’t Exist in the MCU

Spider-Man: No Way Home featured a lot of exciting returns, but none matched the level of seeing back Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn and Green Goblin since he’s still one of the best villains to ever show up in a comic book film. Dafoe first appeared in Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film and would go on to have cameos in the following two installments in the trilogy. When Dafoe’s Norman Osborn first turns up in the MCU, audiences see him in full Green Goblin gear, but he eventually goes on the run and destroys his mask. When Norman Osborn finds his way to a homeless shelter, it’s revealed that neither Oscorp nor Harry Osborn exist in the MCU’s 616 universe.

“I’ll come back if there’s something really good,” the actor said. “If it’s just a cameo or a little tip of the hat, I’m not sure. If it’s something substantial, ‘Yeah.'” — Willem Dafoe on
what would convince him to return as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home
.

This minor mention is a surprise since the MCU continues introducing variants with the franchise in its Multiverse Saga. This seemingly rules out the chance of a new Norman Osborn appearing in the MCU’s 616 universe. Marvel Studios might’ve made this decision because it doesn’t own the Spider-Man film rights, but it did not need to be definitively stated in the film either. This could always become retconned, but for now, it seems Dafoe’s Green Goblin is the only taste of the character audiences will ever experience in the MCU.

Tom Holland Deserved His Own Green Goblin

Norman Osborn will play a major role in the upcoming Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series from Marvel Studios Animation. Colman Domingo will voice Norman Osborn in the series, who will take over the role of Tony Stark in that show’s universe since it doesn’t exist in the MCU 616 universe.

Spider-Man: No Way Home has many villains, yet it’s made clear by the middle of the film that Dafoe’s Green Goblin is the main foe. Dafoe and Tom Holland also exchange some pretty intense battles, including the notable battle at the building where Happy Hogan lives. Dafoe’s Green Goblin also plays a pivotal role in the origin story of Holland’s Spider-Man since he kills Aunt May.

“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. Even as we were doing that – and I had been saying for years, even before anybody asked me what I thought – that you can’t get better than Alfred Molina as Doc Ock. [I said] stepping into those shoes would be very, very difficult. And wouldn’t it be fun to find a way, if you 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.” — Kevin Feige explains
why the MCU films avoided major Spider-Man villains at first
.

This quickly makes Dafoe’s Green Goblin the MCU Spider-Man’s greatest enemy, which lives up to what he is in the comics. That said, it still feels odd since Dafoe’s Green Goblin is from the world of the Raimi trilogy. It’s also strange that Dafoe does not interact with Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man in the film. While it works in the film, it does hurt Holland’s version a little bit since that seems to be the only time he will face the villain. It also distances itself from the more traditional comic book story, with Norman Osborn serving as a father figure to Peter Parker and his relationship with his son, Harry. Spider-Man’s battles with Green Goblin are incredibly personal, making him a great villain. Spider-Man: No Way Home still managed to “attack his heart,” but there’s no personal connection between Holland’s Peter Parker and Dafoe’s Norman Osborn like in the comics.

Norman Osborn Could’ve Played a Larger Role in the MCU

In Iron Man Three, Iron Patriot appeared in the MCU with James “Rhodey” Rhodes taking Norman Osborn’s place since Marvel Studios doesn’t own the rights to him. Norman Osborn was a major focus in the Dark Reign storyline from 2008 to 2009 after the Secret Invasion.

To many, Norman Osborn is best known as the Spider-Man villain, Green Goblin, but over the years, he has also played a role in other areas of the Marvel Universe. In the comics, Norman Osborn also leverages his role as an industrialist similar to Lex Luthor in the DC Universe. Iron Man Three notably featured James “Rhodey” Rhodes as the Iron Patriot. In the Dark Reign storyline, Norman Osborn was the first Iron Patriot and led the Thunderbolts.

“To quote the movie
Speed
, he’s ‘crazy, not stupid’. He’s clearly fiercely intelligent and a natural born leader, with the ego and competitive drive to succeed against all odds. He also just happens to be crazy as a shithouse rat. […] I think the secret to understanding Norman is that he doesn’t realize he’s the villain. He thinks he’s the hero. He truly believes that he deserves public adulation, and it bugs the hell out of him that so-called ‘superheroes’ are getting it instead of him.” — Thunderbolts comic book writer
Andy Diggle on Norman Osborn
.

Norman Osborn has also been responsible for the formation of the Dark X-Men. While Norman Osborn will always be the main adversary of Spider-Man, he’s also become a threat to the rest of the Marvel Universe. It seems Marvel Studios didn’t want to rehash the Green Goblin storyline that was prominent in the Raimi films for the MCU. Still, it could’ve left the door open for a 616 Norman Osborn to exist, since he’s more than just the Green Goblin in the comics, and the MCU could’ve explored that.

Making Willem Dafoe’s version of Green Goblin essentially the 616 version in the MCU worked out for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Yet, the film also rules out the possibility of seeing Holland’s Peter Parker face off against his own Green Goblin in the future. Iconic villains like The Joker and Lex Luthor have been recast several times, with each actor delivering their spin on the character with so much source material to base it on. For Norman Osborn, Dafoe is the only actor to truly play all his dimensions in live-action since Chris Cooper only played a small role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The MCU has handled Spider-Man differently than what traditionally happens in the comics, with Tony Stark serving as the Uncle Ben figure for Holland’s Peter Parker and Aunt May delivering the famous Uncle Ben line before her death. While Marvel Studios doesn’t own the film rights to the character, there was still an avenue for Norman Osborn to become a major force in the MCU like Holland’s Spider-Man has. The good news is that Marvel Studios has been retroactive in the past with villains like The Mandarin, and the same could be true for Norman Osborn in the future.