Riding high from the success of Chronicle, Dane DeHaan joining The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Harry Osborn felt like the natural next step for the actor. However, to shake things up, Sony Pictures made some perplexing changes to his character.
For starters Norman Osborn died and never became the Green Goblin, leaving Harry to transform himself into something between the classic and Ultimate versions of the villain. Fans hated the design and, following a clumsy adaptation of Gwen Stacy's death, Harry was imprisoned.
The plan from there had been to resurrect both Norman and Gwen (a scene with the former's head in a jar was cut from the sequel), with DeHaan expected to return as the Goblin in Sinister Six.
That was all scrapped when Sony and Marvel Studios teamed up to bring a new Spider-Man into the MCU. However, when Andrew Garfield and Rhys Ifans reprised their respective The Amazing Spider-Man roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home, rumours swirled that DeHaan had also been approached.
Not so, according to the actor himself.
"I have no idea what's going on over there," he tells Screen Rant. "When Andrew was making the latest Spider-Man, I didn't know it was happening, and people kept asking me like, 'Are you in the Spider-Man movie?' I was like, 'What the f*** are you talking about?'"
The threequel didn't exactly need DeHaan when it had Willem Dafoe back as Spider-Man's Green Goblin. And, while the actor would be open to starring in another superhero project, he believes the door has been permanently shut on Harry Osborn.
"I mean, never say never, but honestly, I haven't spoken to anyone that has to do with the producer side of Spider-Man in like, 10 years," DeHaan explained. "So I would be shocked to get that phone call."
"I mean, look, I love playing like comic book characters, superheroes, that kind of thing. I would be very interested in returning to that world in some way. But for it to be Spider-Man related, I would just be absolutely shocked, because, again, I haven't gotten a phone call, an email, anything from those people in 10 years."
Following Spider-Man: No Way Home's release, there was a lot of chatter about The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and Spider-Man 4. There's currently nothing to suggest either project is in the works, especially with the focus still on the franchise starring Tom Holland's webbed wonder.
Would you have liked to see more from DeHaan's Green Goblin in Spider-Man: No Way Home?