by Spider-Man: No Way Home, the actor Green Goblin’s MCU premiere, seemed to have only one need from Marvel Studios.
Thanks to the Multiversal antics of Tom Holland‘s wall-crawling threequel, Willem Dafoe‘s portrayal of the famous Spider-Man villain was brought back into the forefront in No Way Home after almost 20 years.
Marvel Studios spent a lot of time organizing Dafoe’s comeback to the Marvel Cinematic Universe; his role underwent several revisions before the final version was chosen.
The figure would have donned parts of an Iron Man costume in one of these possible designs, among other different looks.
The actor Green Goblin Mandate for Marvel
Marvel Studios had one requirement for the reintroduction of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin to the big screen, according to new information that was made public as part of the Spider-Man: No Way Home: Art of the Movie artbook.
Ryan Meinerding, Head of Visual Development at Marvel Studios, stated that the No Way Home team put a lot of effort into adopting the “heightened look [of the character] from the first film” and “making it feel like it existed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:”
“The Green Goblin is another character that had a very iconic, heightened look from the first film. We were tasked with seeing how much of that we could keep while still making it feel like it existed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since a lot of the MCU is about technology, I think Adi Granov was the first one to try to add the hood. Everybody was doing such gorgeous work–Visual Development Concept Illustrator Phil Saunders did some hugely dynamic, amazing images of the Goblin on the glider about to throw pumpkins–and it was all aimed at essentially trying to ground the character a little bit more.”
As the crew attempted to incorporate the original look from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie, concept artist Phil Saunders said that “there were thoughts about [the villain] getting access to a lot of MCU tech”:
“There were thoughts about him getting access to a lot of MCU tech and being able to generate a new suit for himself. And there were different ideas of what that could be.”
One of those concepts, he said, was the Marvel requirement to use “the purple and green colors of the comic book character.”
Saunders tried to include purple technological aspects into the Golbin armor, with glimpses of purple peeking out as a polyurethane layer underneath his outfit, as part of his exploration of the concept.
The final costume’s design was the result of the Marvel concept artist’s original idea, “Let’s take the suit from the Raimi-verse and just MCU it up a bit,” according to the concept artist:
“Let’s take the suit from the Raimi-verse and just MCU it up a bit. In other words, what would that effective design be with the costume molding technology that we have today? A lot of the effort that I put in on the suit was in that direction, trying to make something that, at first glance, is clearly recognizable as the Raimi suit, but just has a little bit of an upgrade to today’s standards and expectations for Super Hero costume design and fabrication.”
A Success for Green Goblin’s MCU Costume?
Following Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin’s controversial appearance in 2002’s Spider-Man, fans were eager to see what Marvel Studios would do with the recognizable (and occasionally infamous) armor.
The end effect, which included the character’s signature green and purple, was a contemporary spin on a comic book classic.
The No Way Home costume paid respect to the caped and hooded version of the character fans have seen on pages for years, even though it did not go full-comic book as certain MCU outfits had in the past (such as Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio).
And that was perhaps the maximum that Marvel Studios would ever achieve. You only need to look at Dane DeHaan’s portrayal of the character in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to see how difficult it is to recreate the true green-skinned Goblin appearance on the big screen and have audiences buy it.
This is not to suggest that a totally deformed Goblin won’t appear in the MCU, but it seemed logical to simply update the Green Goblin armor since Dafoe’s portrayal of the Marvel Comics villain only ever wore it.
You can now buy Spider-Man: No Way Home physically or digitally.
FAQs
- Is there an MCU Green Goblin?
The Green Goblin is the first major opponent from another film franchise to appear in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
- When did Green Goblin debut?
The first and most well-known iteration of the Green Goblin initially appears in The Amazing Spider-Man (14 July 1964), created by author Stan Lee and illustrator Steve Ditko.
- How strong is Green Goblin MCU?
Norman has superhuman strength (able to lift nine tonnes), speed, reflexes, endurance, and healing thanks to the Goblin Formula. He has the ability to repair injured flesh and organs, though not as quickly as the mutant Wolverine. His sanity has been sacrificed in order to increase his intelligence to genius levels.
- Who is stronger Spider-Man or Green Goblin?
In addition to what the Green Goblin has already done to Spider-Man, the villain has a stunning array of talents of his own and is physically stronger than his adversary, making him one of Spidey’s many foes who poses the greatest threat.
- Who is the green villain in Spider-Man?
Several supervillains who feature in American comic books published by Marvel Comics go by the alias The Green Goblin. Along with Doctor Octopus and Venom, the most well-known version of Norman Osborn was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and is widely considered as one of Spider-Man’s archenemies.
