We're Pretty Sure Spider-Man: No Way Home Teases Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin Return

After a lot of waiting, a lot of speculation about the multiverse, and a plethora of (possibly baseless) rumors, the internet finally erupted for real when Marvel Studios and Sony released the first teaser for Spider-Man: No Way Home. The movie, which marks the third solo MCU outing for Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, has long been rumored as the movie with the possibility to bring all three live-action Spider-Mans—Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire—together, and the trailer certainly adds more fuel to that fire. But one thing the teaser 100% confirms is the return of some classic villains of Spider-Man past, including Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus, and, well, someone as the Green Goblin.

Let's get a bit more into that last part, shall we? Obviously there are going to be a lot of major reveals in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and no one from Marvel Studios wants to give all of that away in the trailer. So here's the basics of what we got: Peter Parker's identity is known as a result of Mysterio's actions at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Life is tough. Now that he knows Doctor Strange—they did help save the world together—and both are born and bred New Yorkers, he pops over to Bleeker street to ask for some help. Doctor Strange, apparently now feeling his own hubris more than ever, agrees to help make it so no one ever knew Peter's secret identity. No one. But that, apparently, is stupid! And rips some sort of hole in the multiverse.

From here, we get glimpses of baddies of Spider-Man past. A shock of lightning from an Electro (an unseen Jamie Foxx, who is confirmed to be returning). The big money shot of the trailer is when Doc Ock says "Hello, Peter." We see Alfred Molina, and we know it's him. But while we do see Doc Ock, all we see from the Green Goblin is a pumpkin bomb, and a familiar laugh. We don't see who it is. Which has created some speculation. And you know we're going to dive all the way into it. Who's this Green Goblin? Spider-Man's archenemesis has taken multiple forms in his movie history, and seen numerous characters taking up the mantle. But we think we have an idea of who it is here.

The movie hits theaters on December 17th, 2021—which leaves us plenty of time to speculate and think about exactly who's in the movie. Let's look a bit deeper at who some of our possibilities are.

Willem Dafoe

The clear frontrunner for the actor playing the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home (and the laugher in this teaser trailer) is Willem Dafoe. Dafoe's take on Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man is the iconic take on the character, and the kind of appearance that the powers that be behind the movie would certainly love to keep as a surprise. Dafoe is an icon himself, an Academy Award-nominated actor, and would 100% be an asset for any movie to have.

That's not to mention the fact that the laugh in the trailer sounds very similar to his Goblin laugh from Raimi's movies, and that the Pumpkin Bomb that lands on the bridge looks like the ones he used. When asked about his potential involvement in No Way Home recently, Dafoe played cryptically coy. “I got lots of stuff happening now," he said. "And, you know, I always feel like when a film comes out, that’s when it’s time to talk about it." Eyebrows raised for sure. Our money's on the OG Goblin.

Dane DeHaan

The likelihood is significantly less here. DeHaan played the Harry Osborn version of the Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, to significantly unenthusiastic fanfare. This is not a well-received version of the character. Still, the presence of Jamie Foxx as Electro in No Way Home makes it definite that the Amazing Spider-Man movies will be included. But we'd be surprised if the DeHaan version of the Goblin plays a major part. Perhaps a brief appearance though!

James Franco

It would also be possible that the James Franco character from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films would appear here. Franco appeared in all three of the movies in that series as Harry Osborn, taking up his father's mantle as Green Goblin in Spider-Man 3. Some fans online have speculated that the line in the No Way Home trailer "Be careful what you wish for, Parker," is said by Franco; that's incorrect, as it's clearly a line spoken by Doctor Strange.

While his involvement with the original Spider-Man films and proximity to the Norman Osborn Goblin would make it seem possible or even likely that Franco could appear, the actor's toxic personal history make it unlikely he would be contracted by Disney/Sony to return.

Jacob Batalon

One more idea for you here. This will be the third film where Jacob Batalon plays Ned Leeds—Peter's best friend. But every decision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is chosen carefully, and the name "Ned Leeds" is an important one in Spider-Man lore. Most notably, it's an important name because the Ned Leeds of the comics eventually becomes a quasi-Green Goblin spinoff, the Hobgoblin. It eventually turns out that the Ned who becomes the Hobgoblin is being brainwashed into his villainy, and we just wanted to throw out the idea that someone (perhaps some version of Norman Osborn, or a not-so-dead Mysterio?) is controlling either our Ned or a variant version of Ned, and he's now the Hobgoblin? Just a thought.

While the laugh we hear is certainly not that of Jacob Batalon, it's worth considering that he's the one throwing the pumpkin bomb. Withholding the thrower of the bomb clearly means it's supposed to be someone who would surprise us. And we all sort of see, say, Willem Dafoe coming, right?

Someone else entirely!

As we saw in Loki, there are numerous variants in the multiverse, many of which we've likely never seen before. Sure, the rich history of the Green Goblin means that Marvel could potentially pull all sorts of callbacks and character returns here—and they likely will. But what's to say we don't see some other variant version of the Green Goblin? Would Jason Sudeikis, for one possible instance (and see above photo), not be a cool Norman Osborn? Not saying it's going to happen but you never know.

It's worth thinking about logically. Let's say that the Norman Osborn here is from the multiverse, and he's played by Willem Dafoe. That still means that the MCU world—the world with Tom Holland as Peter Parker—has it's own Norman Osborn that we haven't seen yet. And we have no idea what that Norman looks like—or who'll be set to play him.