No Way Home Writer Says Green Goblin Wasn’t Main Villain In First Script

WARNING! This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s original story didn’t have Green Goblin as its primary villain, the film’s co-writer revealed. Willem Dafoe returned to play Norman Osborn in the latest Marvel Studios and Sony project as its main bad guy alongside several iconic villains from both Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s Spider-Man movies. Brought into the universe of Holland’s Peter Parker by Doctor Strange’s botched spell, Green Goblin was also joined by Doc Ock, Sandman, Lizard and Electro.

Thanks to its multiversal story, Spider-Man: No Way Home was able to bring in not only the big bads from both Raimi and Webb’s movies, but also their very own Spider-Men. Much of the conversation around the movie post-release has revolved around Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s return as their versions of the hero, especially since both have also started opening up about their experience working on the threequel. However, before their involvement was confirmed, fans were fixated on seeing old villains’ appearances in No Way Home. Audiences were especially excited over Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and Dafoe’s Green Goblin, since it had been up to a decade since they last portrayed their Marvel bad guys on the big screen.

Ultimately, Osborn ended up being Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s main villain. He also made arguably the most heartbreaking impact on Peter in the film, causing Aunt May’s (Marisa Tomei) tragic death. However, according to a recent interview with No Way Home co-writer Chris McKenna with Gold Derby, Green Goblin wasn’t meant to be such a core part of the story. McKenna explained that the script underwent a “rapid change,” where Goblin went from featuring as part of an even larger ensemble of villains to the central antagonist. Read his full comment below:

“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.”

It’s no secret that the story for No Way Home changed significantly during production. For starters, Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s ending set up an entirely different threequel, with the focus on the wall-crawler being unmasked. Recently, it has also been revealed that Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) was supposed to appear and battle Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), but the scene was scrapped. At one point, Kraven the Hunter was even going to be the blockbuster’s main bad guy, with the multiverse not being a part of the script at all. Given these many changes, it’s understandable that McKenna and the team didn’t have Green Goblin as Peter’s primary foe. It’s curious, however, which characters McKenna was referring to when he says No Way Home “lost” some during the script rework, and whether they are indeed Mysterio and Kraven.

Overall, whatever the original villain story plans were, things panned out the best way possible. Spider-Man: No Way Home has proved a commercial and critical hit, having already surpassed previous record holders like Titanic at the box office. Aside from setting up Holland’s next Spider-Man trilogy, it also revived interest in Garfield and Maguire’s version of the character. A mix of heartfelt nostalgia and a completely new MCU story, Spider-Man: No Way Homewas the ultimate fan-service project, and the decision to focus in on a classic villain like Green Goblin was a clever way to achieve that.

Source: Gold Derby

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