Willem Dafoe reprised his role as the iconic villain in ‘No Way Home.’

The Big Picture

Spider-Man: No Way Home brought back beloved villains from past franchises, including Green Goblin played by Willem Dafoe. Concept art reveals an interesting connection between Green Goblin and Iron Man, with Osborn wearing a version of Tony Stark’s Mark VI suit. It would have been exciting for fans to explore a further connection between Norman Osborn and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Spider-Man: No Way Home merged the worlds of three of our favorite Spider-Men, including two from franchises past. Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire returned to help Tom Holland’s Peter Parker find his own way but with that came with a group of villains we’ve come to know throughout the years. Like Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. Introduced in Spider-Man, Dafoe’s Norman Osborn is one that was a staple of the franchise. We had a small return to the character in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with Chris Cooper but it was just a vehicle to get to Dane DeHaan’s Harry.

The return of Dafoe though was a long time coming and fans were excited to see this character come into a new generation of Spider-Man stories. However, the concept art for Osborn’s Green Goblin brought with it an interesting connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large. In Spider-Man: No Way Home – The Art of the Movie, fans saw Osborn wearing his classic green suit with…the Mark VI? In one of the sketches, Osborn is wearing a version ofTony Stark’s Iron Man suit red design and all.

There is also a version of this Iron Man-esque Goblin with his typical green and purple color scheme; instead of this look, we got the Green Goblin wearing a purple sweatshirt. It was cool to see this new look into the villain but if he had this Mark VI look to him, it would have opened up the door to a lot of questions about whether or not he was connected to Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark or if he has his own Tony in the Maguire world or more. Still, while the look we got was amazing, this look would have certainly been a talking point.

Connecting These Villains to the MCU
The joy that came from seeing Dafoe’s Osborn as well as Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and other villains from Spidey’s film history was because fans loved their performances from the past. Seeing them back in action was something that fans have been waiting years to see and knowing that it could have had a deeper connection to the Marvel world could have really let fans explore the journey of Osborn’s relationship with Stark Enterprise. Whether or not that’s what this design meant, it is now what fans are thinking of and seeing Tony and Norman square off would have certainly been intriguing. Check out the concept art photos below: