No Way Home’s Cut Tobey Maguire & Green Goblin Rematch Is Disappointing

Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin nearly had a rematch in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but the scene was disappointingly cut. The crowd-pleasing third entry in the MCU’s Spider-Man films saw the return of characters from both previous film franchises, including Sam Raimi’s comic-accurate iterations of Spider-Man and his greatest nemesis, the Green Goblin. While Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man had brutal battles against Dafoe’s Norman Osborn and Andrew Garfield faced off against both of his foes in one-on-one fights, the film missed an opportunity to have Marvel’s greatest live-action villain face off against his universe’s Spider-Man.

The MCU received its greatest supervillain when Doctor Strange’s botched reality-warping spell brought Norman Osborn and other alternate universe characters into the MCU. Stephen Strange and Spider-Man weren’t quite prepared for the sheer menace of Raimi’s Green Goblin, who murdered Peter Parker’s Aunt May and nearly collapsed the multiverse with a well-placed pumpkin bomb. Thanks to the alternate universe “Peter-2” and “Peter-3,” however, the MCU’s Spider-Man had the help he needed to defeat five supervillains without killing any of them.

The No Way Home featurette “Three Big Bad” includes behind-the-scenes footage of the film, including one brief moment where the Green Goblin and “Peter-2” (Tobey Maguire’s iteration of Spider-Man) stand atop the Goblin Glider in the middle of a fight. No such scene made it to the film’s theatrical cut, which is disappointing since Andrew Garfield’s “Peter-3” had moments where he clashed with (or spoke to) his universe’s villains, while Holland’s MCU Spider-Man had extended fights with two of the Sam Raimi-era villains. Having Maguire’s Spider-Man and the Green Goblin fight each other would have been a spectacular moment in a film already filled with so many crowd-pleasing scenes.

Although the two previous Spider-Man iterations take lead roles in No Way Home as soon as they’re introduced, the film’s narrative ultimately belongs to Tom Holland’s MCU Spider-Man. The first multiverse encounter in the film is a battle between Holland’s Spider-Man and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus and the film’s two Green Goblin fights center on Holland’s Peter Parker clashing with Norman Osborn. Despite this, the film made a good decision in having Garfield’s Spider-Man have brief moments with both of his adversaries.

Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man is given a scene where he battles The Lizard in a brief one-on-one fight where he subdues his former mentor with webbing after the two exchange some sarcastic greetings. Later, Garfield’s Spidey removes Electro’s abilities and the two share a brief and heartwarming moment of dialogue. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man is given similar moments with the Sandman and Doctor Octopus, but he, unfortunately, doesn’t have one with his greatest enemy.

As the strongest and most experienced iteration of Spider-Man (who has fought Green Goblin multiple times, no less), Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man was perhaps the only hero in No Way Home who’d be properly prepared for a fight with the Green Goblin. While Holland’s Spider-Man managed to overpower Osborn, he nearly killed him in cold blood, which would have been a victory for the sadistic Green Goblin anyway. While Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man saved Holland’s iteration from the Green Goblin in a sense, Spider-Man: No Way Home shouldn’t have cut a scene where the MCU’s best villain fights his main nemesis.

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David Miller
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David Miller is a staff writer for Screen Rant, indie comic writer, and life-long lover of all things Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. He was born and raised in New York and has a degree in English from Rider University. He relates to Peter Parker maybe a little too much.

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