Willem Dafoe played Norman Osborn for the first time in 2002's Spider-Man, though the Green Goblin's story reached a definitive end when he was impaled on his own glider.
The actor reprised the role in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 as a spectre haunting his son, Harry. However, the franchise ended before he could follow in the footsteps of his comic book counterpart by returning from the dead.
Nearly two decades after first suiting up as the iconic villain, Dafoe reprised perhaps his most iconic role in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Transported to Earth-616 before his death, Norman reminded us why he's Spidey's greatest foe by killing his Aunt May and very nearly turning Peter Parker into a killer (he also stabbed Tobey Maguire's wall-crawler in the back for good measure).
Doing the rounds to promote Nosferatu this week, Dafoe was asked if he could continue Norman's story in Marvel Studios' Spider-Man 4.
"We'll see. We'll see [Laughs]. I could come back," he teased. "Listen, Tom was great to work with and the whole series of Spider-Man films that I did were great fun. Great fun."
These remarks echo what Dafoe said last year. "If everything was right, sure," he said of a possible return. "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.
Why not? Well, in many ways, his story ended when he was cured and forced to live with the consequences of what he'd done as Green Goblin. Spider-Man: No Way Home also confirmed that there's seemingly no Norman on the Sacred Timeline.
You can hear more from Dafoe by following the link in the X post below.