Willem Dafoe Reveals His Terms for Returning in Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man: No Way Home is finally out in theaters and the film sees the return of various old Spider-Man villains, thanks to a spell gone wrong by Doctor Strange which brings all the villains from the other universes into the MCU. Willem Dafoe plays the Green Goblin in the movie. Interestingly, the actor had two key demands to play his role of Green Goblin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
No Way Home sees the return of old Spider-Man villains
As Willem Dafoe revealed to The Hollywood Reporter, that he didn’t want to star in No Way Home as simply a “cameo” given the film’s premise on returning multiversal villains from Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s Sony Spider-Man films. “I’ll come back if there’s something really good,” the actor said. “If it’s just a cameo or a little tip of the hat, I’m not sure. If it’s something substantial, ‘Yeah.'”
Willem Dafoe has had Norman Osborn cameos in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 as a figment of Harry’s imagination and unlike these cameos, Dafoe wanted to perform his action sequences himself for No Way Home. Willem stated that this feature was “important” to him as he first sat with director Jon Watts and producer of Spider-Man films Amy Pascal, he recalled how “one of the first things I said to Jon and Amy basically when they pitched it to me before there was even a script, was ‘Listen, I don’t want to just pop in there as a cameo or just fill in in close-ups.”
Willem Dafoe goes on to explain, “I want to do the action because that’s fun for me and also it’s really impossible to add any integrity or any fun to the character if you don’t participate in these things. Because all that action stuff informs your relationship to the characters and the story and also allows you… it, it makes you earn your right to play the character in a funny way.'”
Dafoe’s performance as Green Goblin has been praised by Tom Holland who describes sharing the screen with the original Spider-Man actor as a “dream come true.” While commending Dafoe’s line delivery, Holland stated in an interview, He would say things he had said in the previous movies and everyone would get chills down the back of their spine” even ranking Green Goblin as one of the best villains he has fought in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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While the early marketing of the film initially downplayed the scenes of Green Goblin, he later made more prominent appearances in the poster for No Way Home and a recent TV spot, where he warns Peter that “no good deed goes unpunished.”
Apart from Dafoe’s Green Goblin, the film also features Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octavius and Jamie Foxx’s Electro who will return alongside Rhys Ifans as Lizard and Thomas Hayden as Sandman.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters.
