If you're an Amazing Spider-Man reader, then you'll know that Ned Leeds and Hobgoblin have a complicated history. While Roderick Kingsley is the true villain behind the villain's mask, Ned was once brainwashed into suiting up and has caused a lot of problems for Spidey over the years.
Now the MCU's Ned no longer remembers Peter Parker, it's possible Marvel Studios could find a way to make it so that their version of the character also suits up as Hobgoblin.
Concept art has confirmed the idea was very briefly considered for Spider-Man: No Way Home, but how does Jacob Batalon feel about it?
"Honestly, I'm not sure," he admitted in an interview with CBR. "Again, we may have talked about things, for sure, but I don't know if it would've really led to anything serious about being a villain, or anything like that."
The odds of this happening seem slim, and if Hobgoblin does appear, then Kingsley arguably makes more sense to be responsible for tormenting the web-slinger. Ned showed a penchant for magic in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but that was a last-minute change to the movie after America Chavez was cut from the story due to changing release dates.
As for his MCU future, Batalon said, "I'm open to anything, and I think we all are open to anything. Unless you're like a superhero, like big time, one of the main ones they're trying to make movies about, you don't really know what's going to happen. In the industry, people don't want to hope to wish."
"So, I would hopefully [return]. I'm down for anything. I would love to be a part of something special again. But also at the same time, I understand it's a business, and people may not want that thing anymore, so I'm just being more realistic than anything else."
In a separate conversation with ComicBook.com, the actor reflected on the experience of sharing the screen with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield during his previous MCU appearance.
"I think everyone on set knew it was really special," Batalon says. "It had never been done before. I feel like everyone understood the gravity of the moment, but we also kept it really light," Batalon said. "At that point in filming, because we were working during the pandemic, we were just all grateful to be there."
"Working on that scene specifically was such a delight because Andrew and Tobey are super great," he said of Ned's exchange with the three Peters in Midtown High. "I remember thinking that it was probably one of those moments where people will probably be talking about it for a long time."
Which villain do you think Spidey should face in Spider-Man 4?