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Director Sam Raimi felt the Green Goblin and the surrogate father-son theme between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker in the then-recent Ultimate Marvel comics was much more interesting than adding "a third complex origin story" to the film, so Doctor Octopus was removed by Scott Rosenberg (who was hired to rewrite Koepp's material) and eventually became the antagonist of Spider-Man 2 (2004). While rewriting Spider-Man (2002) from James Cameron's original " scriptment", David Koepp added the Green Goblin as well as the character Doctor Octopus as a secondary antagonist. The character resurfaces in The Clone Saga and has been adapted into other media separate from comics. The Goblin became one of Spider-Man's most popular enemies during the 1960s and was eventually killed off in the second part of " The Night Gwen Stacy Died" storyline (July 1973).
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The Green Goblin was originally created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, first appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) as a character without a human identity unlike other Spider-Man villains, but the issue had suggested his identity would be revealed in the future the Goblin revealed himself as Norman Osborn at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man #39 (June 1966), the first of a two-part story arc. Dafoe and co-star Tobey Maguire held the Guinness World Record for "the longest career as a live-action Marvel character" before Patrick Stewart retook the record. Dafoe's portrayal has been praised by critics and audiences, being considered one of the most iconic villains in superhero films.
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After a brutal fight with Parker on the Statue of Liberty, Osborn is cured of the Green Goblin identity and returned to his universe.Ī hallucination of Osborn appears in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), haunting his son Harry. Osborn seeks that reality's Peter Parker's help in curing himself and the other universe-displaced visitors, but his mind is taken over by the Green Goblin, who torments Parker and kills his aunt May. The character returns in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) when a spell gone wrong breaks open the multiverse and sends him to an alternate reality. He becomes the Green Goblin and fights Spider-Man, but ultimately dies when he is impaled by his own glider. Osborn first appeared in Spider-Man (2002) as a wealthy industrialist who tests an unstable performance-enhancing serum on himself, developing superhuman strength and a crazed alternate personality. He is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name and is also known by his alternate identity, the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn is a character portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy and later temporarily integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise.
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