Chris McKenna, Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s co-writer has recently disclosed that Green Goblin was not supposed to be the main villain in the movie. The latest Marvel Studios and Sony project saw Willem Dafoe return as Norman Osborn alongside a number of notable villains from Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s Spider-Man movies. The movie brought Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, Lizard, and Electro alongside Norman Osborn, into Holland’s Peter Parker‘s universe through Doctor Strange’s botched spell.
The Spidey-Trio fought against the big bad guys from Spider-Man multiverse. After the release of the movie, much of the talk surrounding it has focused on Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning as their respective versions of the hero. They have also started talking about their experiences working on the threequel.
Even before The MCU confirmed the Spidey-trio, fans were eager to see retro villains’ appearances in No Way Home. Since the last time these characters appeared on the big screen, was more than a decade ago, audiences were especially excited about Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin.
Green Goblin was the principal antagonist in the film. He delivered one of the most emotional heartbreaks on Peter, Aunt May’s (Marisa Tomei) death. In a recent interview with Gold Derby, co-writer Chris McKenna clarified the makers did not want Green Goblin to be the main villain in the story. Kenna explained that the script underwent a ‘rapid change’ where Goblin emerged as the central antagonist after having been part of a larger cast of villains.
“This movie went through a rapid change. [Green Goblin] was not the main villain of this movie. For like the whole first version of the script, he was not the main villain. He was a villain. And then we lost other characters, and then we kept on going, ‘It has to be him. He’s the one who now is the antagonist of the movie. We have to make him the antagonist … So we were evolving the script as we were writing it and shooting it, and it was, ‘Oh, Goblin/Norman has to be the villain. How do we do that?’ And so he became the centerpiece of the movie that he was at first not the centerpiece of.
Goblin was there, but he was not [the main villain] … Then it became clear to all of us, ‘Wait, no, he has to be the other side of May. He has to be the main villain of this.’ He has to have been given a second chance and he was still doing what he was doing in the first movie [2002’s Spider-Man], but in a darker way that now relates to our Peter Parker.”
During the production, Spider-Man: No Way Home underwent many changes. The ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home laid the foundation for an entirely new threequel, as it unmasked the Spider-Man. The film also had a place for a battle between Mysterio and Doctor Strange, but the MCU canceled the idea.
Writer had plans to make Kraven the Hunter the main villain, skipping multiverse theory altogether. The MCU had a long list of such alterations in the script. It’s understandable why McKenna and his team did not include Green Goblin at the top of Peter’s list of enemies.
McKenna claims No Way Home ‘lost’ some characters during the script rewrite. However, it’s not clear if those characters are Mysterio and Kraven. All these things considered, the movie became a blockbuster all over the world, surpassing Titanic at the box office records. It has sparked fans’ interest in Holland’s next Spider-Man trilogy. Not only that, No Way Home also brought Tobey and Andrew’s Spider-Man to life once again.
The film became an epitope of fan service packed with sweet nostalgia. No way Home has really opened up a new door of adventures in the MCU. Surely, a big part of the credit goes to Green Goblin’s primary role.
