Spider-Man: No Way Home brought back a number of familiar villains from the franchise's past, but despite playing only a very minor role in the threequel's marketing campaign, Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin was quickly established as the lead villain.
Intent on making this newfound reality his own, the unhinged Norman Osborn initially earned Peter Parker's trust before his true nature made itself known. After pushing the wall-crawler to his limits and killing Aunt May, Spider-Man and the Goblin squared off at the Statue of Liberty in a battle that very nearly saw the teenager dole out lethal justice to his foe.
Thanks to the Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man's timely intervention, Peter instead chose to cure Osborn, with the now-sane villain eventually returning to his own world.
During the course of this adventure, it was confirmed that the MCU doesn't have a Norman Osborn or Oscorp, but that doesn't mean Dafoe couldn't one day return, right?
In a recent interview with Inverse, the Spider-Man star ruled nothing out. "If everything was right, sure," he told the site. "I mean, that's a great role. I liked the fact that it's a double role both times. Twenty years ago, and fairly recently, both times [were] very different experiences, but I had a good time on both."
While some fans were disappointed that the Goblin spent very little time wearing his mask, Dafoe's facial expressions were ultimately all that was needed to sell the villain as a truly terrifying force of nature. In fact, we'd go so far as to say it was one of the best superhero movie performances in recent memory.
Unfortunately, even in the midst of the Multiverse Saga, we don't necessarily anticipate seeing Norman again. Sony might attempt to convince Dafoe to reprise the role in one of their upcoming movies, but it's hard to picture there being room for him in Spider-Man 4 or even something like Avengers: Secret Wars!
Do you think Dafoe's Green Goblin could have a future in the MCU?