Norman Osborn (Sam Raimi film series)

The original animatronic headgear for the Green Goblin was created by Amalgamated Dynamics

During development of what would eventually become Spider-Man (2002), David Koepp's rewrites of James Cameron's original script had the Green Goblin as the main antagonist and added Doctor Octopus as the secondary antagonist.[1] Incoming director Sam Raimi felt the Green Goblin and the surrogate father-son theme between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker, influenced by the Ultimate Marvel version of the character, would be more interesting, thus, he dropped Doctor Octopus from the film.[2] In June 2000, Columbia Pictures hired Scott Rosenberg to rewrite Koepp's material. Willem Dafoe was cast for the role of Norman Osborn in November 2000.[3] Nicolas Cage (who would later voice Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), Jason Isaacs, John Malkovich, and Jim Carrey turned down the role.[4][5]

According to Dafoe, Raimi contacted him while he was shooting in Spain. Dafoe thought they would only speak for ten minutes, but the conversation went on for two hours with Raimi describing the film's story "in such incredible psychological detail, talking about the relationships without getting to the action or the Green Goblin/Spider-Man stuff." Dafoe came to realize that Raimi was not "cynical about this story. He deeply loves his characters, and feels an obligation as a Spider-Man fan to present these characters truthfully."[6]

To create his character, Dafoe first concentrated on Norman Osborn due to his belief that the Green Goblin was an aspect of Norman and already made by external things like his costume and the film's special effects. Dafoe furthered that Norman was "a very complex character on the page" and that he could relate to Norman due "to his ambition and his desire for perfection and how that perverts so much of his relationship to people."[7] Dafoe insisted on wearing the uncomfortable costume as he felt that a stuntman would not convey the character's necessary body language. The 580-piece suit took half an hour to put on.[8] Dafoe later called his role as the Green Goblin one of his favorites throughout his career, having enjoyed playing the unhinged character particularly due to his dual personalities, and balancing between a dramatic and comedic performance. In particular, he enjoyed the mirror scene in which Norman Osborn discovers and converses with the Green Goblin persona after murdering the Oscorp board of directors. Sam Raimi had given Dafoe a copy of Jekyll and Hyde to prepare for the scene, which was filmed in one take multiple times before Raimi decided to split it; to further differentiate the personas, Dafoe wore dental prosthetics providing the character straight teeth when portraying Norman, only exposing his natural crooked teeth when portraying the Goblin.[9][10]

After The Amazing Spider-Man film series was cancelled, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced in February 2015 that Spider-Man would appear in the MCU, with the character appearing in an MCU film and Sony releasing a Spider-Man film co-produced by Feige and Pascal. Sony Pictures would continue to own, finance, distribute, and exercise final creative control over the Spider-Man films.[11] In a 2016 interview, producer Amy Pascal spoke of an attempt to differentiate the new Spider-Man films from previous ones and cited the Goblin's exlusion as part of this: "I mean, I don't know how many more times we can do - at least for now - I don't know how many more times we can do the Green Goblin. I've certainly tried to do it fifty."[12] Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reflected that the mission behind the MCU Spider-Man films was to do things they had never done before and that it never occurred "...to do a new Goblin story...or anyone that had been done before, which is why Vulture and Mysterio were really the key characters."[13]

Dafoe reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Dafoe initially was hesitant of a return, due to his character's death in the 2002 film. He became more open when the film's story was explained by Pascal and director Jon Watts, say that Watts "kind of pitched the whole idea before I read a script, and it sounded like a lot of fun and a good solution." Dafoe also enjoyed the idea that he was "returning to something that was the same but different."[14] According to screenwriter Chris McKenna, Green Goblin was not originally the main antagonist and his prominence in the story increased after they "lost other characters". McKenna said that Goblin "has to have been given a second chance and he was still doing what he was doing in the first movie [2002's Spider-Man], but in a darker way that now relates to our Peter Parker."[15] To prevent his involvement in Spider-Man: No Way Home from leaking and preserve the film's secrecy, Dafoe was required to walk around the set with a cloak covering his costume. Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, who was then unaware of Dafoe's casting in the film, first met him when he accidentally bumped into him before filming, and was surprised upon seeing who the cloaked actor was.[16] Dafoe was also digitally de-aged to resemble his appearance in the 2002 film.

Before settling on the look used in the film, the original headgear created for the Green Goblin was an animatronic mask created by Amalgamated Dynamics. The design was much more faithful to the comics than the finished product, and allowed for a full range of emotions to be expressed by the wearer. Ultimately, the mask was scrapped before an actor was chosen to play the Green Goblin, and a static, military-grade helmet was produced for the film instead, due to the animatronic concept being deemed "too creepy" by studio executives and due to technical difficulties and constraints.[17][18][19]

Costume designer James Acheson said that Dafoe told him that he wanted the costume to be flexible enough for him to do splits, Acheson furthering that Dafoe was a yogi and "probably the most flexible actor I’ve ever worked with." When they started designing the costume, there was only a puppet of the design and they "picked out the major points where we would be hooking wires up to a harness under the costume", which became the basis from where they could lift him from his back or hips as well as do "several different things on wires.”[20]

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Green Goblin wears his costume from the 2002 Spider-Man film in only his first scene, Norman destroying the helmet after the Goblin speaks to him. The costume is depicted with a purple undersuit beneath the green armor with the Goblin also wearing round goggles and having blades affixed to his wrist armor. Dan Zinski described the suit as tattered and noted the goal of the MCU's costume designs "to find some middle ground between the comic bookish and the more realistic."[21] In an interview, Dafoe joked that "nobody knows how uncomfortable those costumes are" before admitting they had become more comfortable than they use to be. Dafoe explained “I don't know how much we want to fool with spoilers but the look's a little different. Norman and the Goblin are further down the line and have a few more tricks up their sleeves, so it’s not an exact… there've been upgrades on the costume, let's say.”[22]

Dr. Norman Osborn is a scientist and the founder of Oscorp Industries, doubling as CEO. He is the father of Harry Osborn, who he has somewhat of a strained relationship with. Osborn also met Dr. Otto Octavius, whose work he funded via Oscorp and who considered him greedy and misguided. During a school field trip, Osborn is introduced to Harry's best friend Peter Parker, whose intelligence impresses Osborn.[lower-alpha 1]

Later that day, Osborn is present when his colleague Dr. Mendel Stromm reveals to military officials overseeing the super-soldier project that some of the test subjects have gone insane. He is threatened with a tight deadline, and decides to experiment on himself. The process causes Osborn to develop a crazed alternate personality, who kills Stromm. Under the influence of his new "Goblin" persona, Osborn kills the military officials and scientists present at a Quest Aerospace weapons test. Although Quest's prototype is destroyed, the company decides to expand and assumes control of Oscorp on the condition that Osborn steps down as CEO. During a festival in Times Square, the Goblin kills the Oscorp board of directors, meeting Spider-Man in the process. Osborn becomes aware of his alternate personality, who tells him that only Spider-Man is in their way. The Goblin attacks the Daily Bugle editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson and threatens him to say who takes Spider-Man's pictures for the paper. Spider-Man shows up and the Goblin knocks him out and takes him to a rooftop, offering him a partnership and belittling his choice to become a hero. The Goblin later baits Spider-Man to a burning apartment to ask if he accepted his offer, and is enraged by his refusal.

After Thanksgiving dinner with Parker, his aunt May, Harry and his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, Osborn deduces that Spider-Man is the dual identity of Parker[lower-alpha 2] and, despite begging the Goblin not to hurt him, attacks and hospitalizes May and later kidnaps Watson. The Goblin makes Spider-Man choose whether to save Watson or a Roosevelt Island Tramway car full of children, but Parker saves both. The Goblin drags Spider-Man to an abandoned building on his glider and nearly kills him, but Parker fights back upon Watson being threatened. Thinking to fool him by unmasking himself as Osborn, the Goblin tries to lull Parker into a false sense of security whilst attempting to impale Parker with the glider from behind. Parker dodges, however, and the glider fatally stabs Osborn, who tells Parker not to tell Harry about what he had done.

In the original timeline, Harry mourns the loss of his father at his funeral, and vows vengeance on Spider-Man after witnessing the vigilante bring Osborn's body dead, while Parker rejects Watson.[lower-alpha 1] Octavius also attends his funeral.[N 1] Following his death, Osborn's identity as the Green Goblin and death are widely reported on, causing Harry to live in denial over his father's true identity for two years.[N 1]

Two years later, Harry discovers Spider-Man's identity as Peter Parker and is haunted by a hallucination of Osborn demanding to be avenged, with Harry discovering a hidden lair containing Green Goblin's arsenal and becoming the "New Goblin" a year later in his father’s memory. Osborn's presence later appears after Harry recovers his memories after his first encounter with Parker, reminding Harry to avenge him and to go after Parker's heart. However, Harry eventually finds out the truth about his father's death and gives up his vendetta against Parker, helping him in a battle against Flint Marko / Sandman and Eddie Brock / Venom and giving his own life to save his friend.

In an alternate reality, Dr. Stephen Strange casts a spell to erase people's memories of Peter Parker's (nicknamed "Peter-One") identity as Spider-Man, but Peter-One tampers with the spell, causing it to bring in people from across the Multiverse who know Spider-Man's identity, including Osborn moments before his death. The Green Goblin encounters Peter-One and Otto Octavius at the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, but they are teleported to the Sanctum Sanctorum before he can attack. Afterwards, Osborn regains control of his body and mind and tries to get away from the Green Goblin by abandoning his glider and smashing his Goblin mask in an alleyway.

Seeing an ad of Spider-Man for F.E.A.S.T., Osborn wanders into the facility in search of him, believing he's his Peter Parker, but ends up meeting an alternate May Parker, who calls in Peter-One. After Spider-Man arrives at F.E.A.S.T., Osborn realizes that Peter-One is not his version of Parker when he sees him without his mask. Osborn goes with Peter-One to the Sanctum Sanctorum where he reunites with Octavius, and the two find out that they died in their universe while fighting their Spider-Man. When Peter-One offers to cure the multiversal individuals and himself, Osborn decides to help him as he works with him in curing the group, including Octavius, Marko, Curt Connors, and Max Dillon. While working with Peter-One, Osborn is impressed with his intelligence and kindness, seeing much of his Parker in him. However, the Green Goblin retakes control of Osborn's mind, and convinces the rest of the group, except for Octavius, to turn on Peter-One and battles him through Happy Hogan's apartment. In the lobby, the Goblin summons his glider and throws a pumpkin bomb, causing the apartment to explode. He proceeds to fatally stab May with it and escapes.

After Connors, Marko, and Dillon are cured with the help from Octavius, the Goblin attacks and destroys the contained spell from Strange, causing the barriers between universes to break. While Strange attempts to seal the barriers, an enraged Peter-One nearly kills the Goblin but is stopped by an older version of the Parker from Osborn's universe (nicknamed "Peter-Two"), whom the Goblin non-fatally stabs in the back. Peter-One and another version of Parker (nicknamed "Peter-Three") inject the Goblin with a cure Parker has developed, restoring him to a remorseful Norman Osborn. Afterwards, Strange casts a spell to make the alternate world forget Peter-One's existence, causing Osborn, Octavius, Marko, and their Peter Parker to return to their universe.

This version of Norman Osborn is mentioned in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, a CGI-animated television series which serves as a loose alternate continuation of the first Spider-Man film. As in the films, Harry holds a grudge against Spider-Man for his father's death and is not aware of Norman's criminal activities as the Green Goblin.

• Norman Osborn/Green Goblin appears in the video game adaptation of the 2002 film, with Willem Dafoe reprising his role in a vocal capacity, making him and Tobey Maguire the only two actors from the film to do so.[29][30]
• This version of Norman Osborn appears in his Green Goblin persona in the 2007 game Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, voiced by Roger L. Jackson. In this alternative timeline where all the villains from the Spider-Man films survived their original deaths, the Goblin is present during their attempt to kill Spider-Man in the game's opening cutscene. Harry is also present and assists Spider-Man as the New Goblin. After the villains are defeated, the group is attacked by a swarm of P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s, and the villains, including the Goblin, are suddenly teleported elsewhere while Spider-Man is rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. The Goblin is then brainwashed by the villainous mastermind behind the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s and sent to Tokyo to retrieve one of the meteor shards used to create the P.H.A.N.T.O.M.s. There, the player fights him on top of the city's Oscorp tower, and Spider-Man destroys his mind-controlling amulet, restoring his free will. Afterward, the Goblin, seeking revenge on whoever brainwashed him, reluctantly joins forces with Spider-Man and becomes a playable character for the remainder of the game.

A shot of the Green Goblin chasing down Spider-Man became a popular Internet meme in 2020.[43] Osborn's line "y'know, I'm something of a scientist myself", which became a meme in the years preceding the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, was reprised during the film.[44][45]