Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man puts a new spin on many familiar faces, including Norman Osborn. Comic book fans will know him best as the Green Goblin, Spidey's greatest enemy and someone who Peter Parker can never truly trust (even when he's free of his darker half).
That doesn't mean this Marvel Animation series will head down that route, of course, but it seems inevitable that Norman will become the Goblin, whether it's later in season 1 or the recently confirmed second and third seasons.
Talking to Collider, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man showrunner Jeff Trammell discussed the decision to have Norman fill the role of Peter Parker's mentor and how he approached the preconceived notions fans are likely to have about the iconic villain.
"Yeah, so when you hear Norman Osborn is Peter Parker’s mentor, your mind immediately goes, this ain’t good. So, I think, you know, in crafting our Norman, I very much want to try to fight that, you know, I think that we’re all coming with a preconceived notion of we know who Norman is."
"Because again, there’s 60 years of character that says this is who Norman is, and just from the second you meet him, our Norman is different. Our Norman has different nuances. He’s got a different take, you know, he’s still got that kind of like the commanding presence and the power of a Norman Osborn, but, you know, in a different way."
As for whether Norman can truly be trusted, Trammell chose his words carefully but gave actor Colman Domingo credit for bringing some added depth to this Variant of the character.
"So I want to make sure that, like, when you meet Norman, In the back of your mind, even if you’re 100% sure, I know where this is going, there’s part of you that’s like, but do I? Do I fully know? Because this is a different guy. So if this is different, he’s different maybe. So for me, it was always kind of like finding someone who, finding a way to express that with the character."
"And what Colman does is so incredibly well is like adding a level of nuance to Norman to where everything he says. You’re like, oh, he means that, and in the back of your mind you’re like, but does he? So he’s very, he’s he has the character down in such a great way that it allows us to play with, you know, everything he says can have double meanings."
Many fans are already saying they'd like to see Domingo play a live-action Norman in the MCU, though that doesn't seem likely seeing as Spider-Man: No Way Home confirmed he doesn't exist on the Sacred Timeline.
Do you think Norman can be trusted or is his transformation into the Green Goblin inevitable? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming a hero, with a journey unlike we've ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots.
The talented voice cast includes Hudson Thames, Colman Domingo, Eugene Byrd, Grace Song, Zeno Robinson, Hugh Dancy and Charlie Cox.
The head writer is Jeff Trammell and Mel Zwyer is the supervising director. Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt and Trammell serve as executive producers.
In our review of the series, we concluded by saying, "Amazing, spectacular, and downright astonishing - Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man exceeds every expectation and is a true love letter to the world's greatest superhero...the end result is the ultimate Spider-Man TV series."
The first two episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are now streaming on Disney+.