Willem Dafoe Addresses Returning As Green Goblin In The MCU’s Spider-Man Franchise

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Green Goblin actor Willem Dafoe discusses his MCU return as Norman Osborn in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin is one of the most famous villains in Marvel movie history, having been Spider-Man's first main antagonist in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Dafoe's extraordinary performance as the Green Goblin played a key role in Spider-Man's success in 2002, and to fans' delight, Dafoe got a second go at the character almost two decades later in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

In an interview with Empire, Willem Dafoe addresses Green Goblin's return in Spider-Man: No Way Home and explains how the character differed given the absence of his mask throughout most of the movie's runtime. Dafoe states that "the real meat in the first one is the guy without the mask, Norman Osborn." and highlights how the most interesting aspect of his Spider-Man villain is that "you don't know how much of the Green Goblin is back and how much it's Norman". Read Willem Dafoe's comments below:

"It was just a pleasure to return to that character. Just like the original, I like the fact that within a scene it could careen from being goofy comedy to drama to action. It has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. And it was a double role. Everybody concentrates on the Green Goblin, but that's mostly action stuff. I like doing that, and I think I can do it gracefully. But the real meat in the first one is the guy without the mask, Norman Osborn. Those are the meaty scenes. So when people complain about the mask, it's like, "Come on." The role is Norman. And then in [No Way Home], we have a little bit more Norman, because part of the game is, you don't know how much of the Green Goblin is back and how much it's Norman. That's the whole play."

Source: Empire