SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Concept Artist Explains Why Marvel Studios Scrapped Green Goblin's Mask

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME Concept Artist Explains Why Marvel Studios Scrapped Green Goblin's Mask

Spider-Man: No Way Home concept artist Ryan Meinerding reveals why the decision was made to take the Green Goblin's mask from him, crediting Willem Dafoe's incredible performance. Read on for details...

By JoshWilding - Aug 08, 2023 11:08 AM EST
Filed Under: No Way Home

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. 

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

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Drace24
Drace24 - 8/8/2023, 11:43 AM
I always liked that suit. Never understood why people called it a "Power Rangers" suit, even though it didn't look at all like one, but wearing a comic accurate rubber mask absolutely would have made him look like a monster from Power Rangers.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 8/8/2023, 11:45 AM
@Drace24 - I always liked it too. Was one of my favourite toys as a kid because of detailed it was
theFUZZ008
theFUZZ008 - 8/8/2023, 11:44 AM
It's because everyone loathed it.
soberchimera
soberchimera - 8/8/2023, 12:17 PM
@theFUZZ008 - The $825M box office says otherwise. That's $1.4B in today's dollars.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 8/8/2023, 11:55 AM
@PlusUltra - I don't know. I think they could have pulled it off. Ian McDiarmid's make-up to turn him into the Emperor never betrayed his facial expressions. I do hope one day we get a comic book-accurate Green Goblin (or Hobgoblin).

FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 8/8/2023, 11:45 AM
Exactly. No mask/purple Smurf hat was ever going to top Dafoe emoting
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 8/8/2023, 11:45 AM
Because they took Weird Al’s advice…

“Now Norman's a billionare scientist
Who never had time for his son
But then something went screwy and before you knew he
Was trying to kill everyone
And he's ridin' around on that glider thing
And he's throwin' that weird pumpkin bomb
Yes, he's wearin' that dumb Power Rangers mask
But he's scarier without it on“

- Ode to a Superhero
CoHost
CoHost - 8/8/2023, 11:54 AM
When you really get past the nostalgia, the film wasn't all that good.
Origame
Origame - 8/8/2023, 12:13 PM
@CoHost - depends. Do you mean the first spiderman? If so, you're dead wrong.

If you mean no way home, I'll give you that. But it beat the pants off of every single mcu Spiderman movie by a country mile.
soberchimera
soberchimera - 8/8/2023, 12:15 PM
@CoHost - Agreed, Dr. Strange is a completely different character from the one in Infinity War who was super responsible and needed to protect reality.
FinnishDude
FinnishDude - 8/8/2023, 12:16 PM
@CoHost - It is overhyped to hell, but as someone who never wanted a live-action Spider-Verse movie, it's a fun enough ride. It's relys very heavily on you bringing in some level of familiarity to the pre-MCU Spider-Man movies (which makes me wonder how well it will hold-up in 10 or so years, when a younger generation sees it for the first time) and the inner-logic (as with basically every time/multiverse-travel stories) is super easy to nitpick, but it is good enough time despite all of that.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 8/8/2023, 12:18 PM
If they were smart or creative they’d have had his skin turn greenish and eyes yellowish as a side effect from the antidote that didnt work.. seemed kind of obvious but didnt matter anyway cause he only made a cameo appearance in the final battle
Fares
Fares - 8/8/2023, 12:34 PM
Dafoe already looks like a Goblin. Paint him green, give him yellow eyes and call it a day.
Boredasffff
Boredasffff - 8/8/2023, 1:14 PM
@Fares -
You’re such a dick.
He is a great actor with his facial expressions,no need to insult him.
Let’s see your ugly face!
Fares
Fares - 8/8/2023, 1:36 PM
@Boredasffff - You're right, it's quite dickish of me to say that, and I shouldn't have. Sorry Willem, in case you're reading this.
However, I must ask, genuinely, not trying to be sarcastic, how do I communicate the idea that I initially had in mind, which I still believe to be true, without sounding dickish?
SATW42
SATW42 - 8/8/2023, 1:13 PM
I thought it was pretty smart because one of the biggest marks against the first spider man movie was "you got willem dafoe and you put his face behind a non expressive mask?

It's not even about it being "power Rangers" it just offered no expression, and not in a good way. No amount of body work or head bobs can do what his face does. I was fine with no mask for these reasons.
PapaBear562
PapaBear562 - 8/8/2023, 4:06 PM
Definitely better without the mask. Like many others have said, Willem is such a great actor and he executed the role to perfection.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 8/8/2023, 4:16 PM
Agreed. I love the OG suit, but no mask can ever convey the Green Goblin as well as this face


SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 8/8/2023, 6:40 PM
For most other actors, I'd have said they need to figure the mask out. But for Dafoe, his face is far too expressive to conceal it behind the mask. I guess you could paint it green for some reason, but that's the extent of what I would do.
StSteven
StSteven - 8/8/2023, 6:42 PM
Totally agree that he was better without the mask. Plus, as Ryan said in the article above (and something that people may have overlooked) is that you can tell by his expressions and voice when he is Norman and when he is the Goblin. In the first SM movie, it was pretty obvious when he was the Goblin and when he was Norman because when he was in the suit he was the Goblin and MOST of the rest of the time outside of the suit he was Norman. Most. However there's that one amazing scene in particular where he's in front of the mirror and he's going back and forth between the Goblin and Norman and his facial expressions change so much between the two that you could watch it on mute and know when he's the Goblin, which really proved, even back then, that he didn't really need to be in the Goblin suit for us to know when he's the Goblin.

That, then, allowed the filmmakers for "NWH" to forego the OG suit and mask and just put him in something similar to his comic costume but without the mask, because that would allow him to pull of his ruse of being free of the Goblin when he was clearly not (as we see in the above video). It would have been a lot harder for him to convince Spidey & Co. that he was Norman and not the Goblin if he were walking around still wearing the mask, or kept it at all. After all, the Goblin isn't the costume, but the person inside it.
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