Everyone has their favorite Spider-Man movie or their favorite Peter Parker. But whether you’re on team Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, or Tom Holland (shout-out to Shameik Moore fans), everyone can agree on one thing: Willem Dafoe was the best Spidey villain ever.
First appearing in Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man, Dafoe stole the show as Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin. His acrobatic performance was part Jekyll and Hyde and part Gollum, an electrifying dual role in which Norman — after injecting himself with an unstable performance-enhancing chemical — is caught in a battle between a psychopathic, dark half and his regular self. Dafoe was so good that he would return in Raimi’s following two Spider-Man sequels, albeit in brief appearances hamming it up through a mirror.
And that was it, a few appearances of crazed mirror-Dafoe seemed like it would be the last we’d see of his Green Goblin. Until, that is, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Unexpectedly, Dafoe not only reprised his role as Norman Osborn in the multiverse crossover hit, but he was once again the main villain. Dafoe chewed up the scenery like it was only yesterday that he had worn the green suit, terrorizing Holland’s Spider-Man and endearing himself to a whole new generation of Spider-Man fans. It was a perfect swan song for Dafoe’s Green Goblin. But could there ever be a chance that we’d see his Green Goblin again?
“If everything was right, sure,” Dafoe tells Inverse in an interview promoting his latest release, Inside. “I mean, that's a great role. I liked the fact that it's a double role both times. Twenty years ago, and fairly recently, both times [were] very different experiences, but I had a good time on both.”
It wouldn’t be impossible for Dafoe to come back as Green Goblin, or to even take on a new role as a new Marvel character (the latter has been done many times before). With the multiverse blown wide open, the possibility of new variants and new cameos are endless. We are deep in the Multiverse Saga after all — anything could happen.
Inside opens in theaters March 17.
