Willem Dafoe stole the show as Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home, though it was definitely a shame not to see more of Norman Osborn in the suit he wore in 2002's Spider-Man.
When the villain appeared in the midst of the battle between Spidey and Doctor Octopus, Peter Parker was immediately pulled from the bridge by Doctor Strange. However, original plans called for a three-way battle, something confirmed in the newly released "Art of" book for the movie.
Norman later smashed his old mask and that was the last we saw of it (though Marvel Studios considered sticking it to the front of the villain's Goblin Glider).
Talking in the aforementioned book, Head of Visual Development and concept artist Ryan Meinerding elaborated on the decision to take Gobbie's mask from him. "As much as | like that helmet," he says, "Willem's face is so expressive, and he can change from Norman into the Goblin so seamlessly and eerily."
"One of the best decisions made in the film was to make being the Goblin about his face more than anything else."
Meinerding believes the suit Norman wears during the final battle at the Statue of Liberty is "comics-accurate to a different version of the Goblin," adding: "It's one of the more fun things about the way that we try to approach costume design for these characters."
"We're looking at what tools we have at our disposal, the colors we have on our palette, and how we make them work together and put them in a story order that makes sense but also ends in a place that feels like the character from the comics. And I think they did an amazing job to accomplish that."
There might be better versions of the Green Goblin out there but we'd say a combination of those cues from the comic books and Dafoe's incredible facial expressions more than made up for the villain not wearing either his classic mask or one pulled straight from the page.
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