Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 1 ended by confirming that Peter Parker's mentor, Norman Osborn, was every bit as shady as his comic book counterpart. While by no means a full-blown villain, the Oscorp CEO is clearly up to no good.
With genetically modified spiders and a Symbiote in his possession, Norman is one step closer to becoming a major threat to Peter Parker. Now, we know that a transformation into the Green Goblin is definitely somewhere in his future.
Brad Winderbaum, the Head of Streaming, Television and Animation at Marvel Studios, recently sat down with The Escape Pod. During their conversation, he confirmed that the MCU is getting another Goblin after Willem Dafoe previously reprised his role as the iconic villain in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.
"There’s something that we can do on Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man that’s harder to do in the movies," the executive explained, "which is something that the comics do really well, which is to build those friendships over long periods of time and set some of the character arcs to a simmer."
"So like Lonnie [Lincoln] now doesn’t become Tombstone like right away; Norman doesn’t become Green Goblin right away."
"Spoiler! He’s going to become Green Goblin at some point, it’s coming," Winderbaum confirmed, "but it’s like you get to live with the characters first and learn about the relationships so that when those big cards get turned over, it has a huge emotional impact."
Will Norman become a supervillain in the upcoming second season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man? We wouldn't bank on it, especially as the Marvel Television head's comments seem to indicate that it's something the animated series is slowly building to.
If anything, we'd bet on Season 2 following Norman's descent into villainy before he suits up as the Green Goblin in Season 3. That's pure speculation for now, of course, but one thing we do know is that Gwen Stacy won't be victimised by him.
Marvel Animation previously confirmed that she'll join the cast of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in Season 2, suiting up as a new version of Spider-Gwen.
Back to the Goblin, and with nothing to suggest Marvel Studios plans to introduce a new version in Tom Holland's Spider-Man franchise, it seems we'll have to make do with an animated take on the villain for now. Given how spectacular Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 1 was, that's not the worst thing in the world.