Willem Dafoe makes a cryptic comment about the Green Goblin's MCU return

Spider-Man: No Way Home wasn't only a spectacular trilogy capper, but also a celebration of the hero's complete history on the big screen. Characters we once watched in previous franchises made a comeback and completely stole the spotlight. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men made audiences jump out of their seats in excitement, and villains such as Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus made us relive countless memories. It was a fantastic multiversal adventure, but chances are we'll have to wait many decades until we watch something remotely similar in movie theaters... or are we?

See, everything seems to suggest the multiverse will also play a huge part in the MCU's Spider-Man 4. While most rumors indicate Tom Hardy's Venom will be the character joining Tom Holland's party, perhaps other villains could also make the cut. Of course, an obvious choice would be the King in Black himself, Knull, considering he just made his live-action debut in Venom: The Last Dance. But we're not here for the obvious, as Willem Dafoe himself teases he could make an unexpected return (for the second time in a row).

Willem says he could come back as the Green Goblin

Willem Dafoe recently talked to Entertainment Tonight about his upcoming film Nosferatu. Naturally, Spider-Man was brought up in the conversation — so when asked if audiences will ever find out what happened to Norman Osborn after the ending of No Way Home, this is what Willem had to say:

"We'll see. We'll see (...) I could come back. Listen, Tom was great to work with and the whole series of Spider-Man films that I did were great fun"

Interestingly enough, this isn't the first time we've heard about a possible Green Goblin comeback. Back in October, it was reported Willem would play a new variant of Norman Osborn in Spider-Man 4 and that he'd be the leader of the Sinister Six. So based on the American actor's comments, it looks like there was more validity to that rumor than originally anticipated. However, it's also worth questioning which kind of movie will audiences witness.

Up until this point, everything indicated Spider-Man 4 would see the wall-crawler team up with Tom Hardy's Venom to fight against Knull and his army of symbiotes. However, some insiders have also stated that other street-level villains such as The Vulture and Scorpion will also be present. It sounds like two completely different movies with very different narratives, so of course the question in mind is: which one are we going to get? Personally, my money is on the symbiote storyline. After all Sony Japan themselves accidentally teased that Tom Hardy would have a role to play.

Now that Sony's Spider-Man universe is officially over, Spider-Man 4 is the last chance Sony has to make use of their expanded Spider-Man characters. And let's be honest: only one villain has successfully led a franchise on the big screen, and that's Venom. So it would be quite shocking for the Lethal Protector not to share the screen with Tom Holland's Peter Parker. Besides, it's worth remembering the Green Goblin has been the main antagonist in many Spider-Man movies now, so Spider-Man 4 would risk becoming quite repetitive if it did the same. With that in mind, could Willem Dafoe's comments about a potential comeback be about another movie altogether?

With Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars on the horizon, it's worth contemplating the possibility that the Green Goblin may show up in any of them. After all, Marvel could look to form a team of previously-known supervillains to fight against the many MCU heroes we currently have. A great advantage of using characters such as Willem's Norman Osborn is that they wouldn't have to introduce them again to audiences, and since the Avengers movies are really crowded, that could be a great advantage. Besides, wouldn't it be great for the Goblin's last appearance to be in such a big project? Well, one can only dream.

Spider-Man 4 will be released on Jul. 24, 2026.