One of the most anticipated returns in Spider-Man: No Way Home is Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. The involvement of Spider-Man's first cinematic antagonist has been teased since the first trailer, and it appears to have been confirmed by the latest No Way Home poster, which brings multiple generations of villains together.Dafoe's potential return has led to fans rewatching Sam Raimi's seminal superhero movie, Spider-Man. But beyond transporting fans to a pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe vision of superhero movies, it's also allowed them to experience Dafoe's version of the iconic villain again and pick up on something that flew over audiences members' heads in 2002.
An image of the Green Goblin sneaking up on Spider-Man on his Goblin Glider from the film left an impression on Twitter user Rei. The shot was framed with a particular part of the Goblin's anatomy front and center, which led to the internet using it as a meme in early 2020. Some users admired Dafoe's glutes, with more than one person considering him to be "thicc," even going as far as to dub him "Willem DaThicc." Others found the image to be a perfect meme template, with many of the images referencing the opening stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in March of 2020. Others went a less topical route, comparing the Goblin's approach to grabbing some shredded cheese at 3 A.M. and the Pixar logo.
Now, after originating in 2020, the meme has made a comeback as the hype for No Way Home has ramped up. People are still discovering the Green Goblin's thiccness and making memes out of it, including one from Twitter user Broono, who photoshopped the Thicc Goblin into No Way Home's poster.
However, as much fun as fans are having with the Goblin's backside, a rewatch of Spider-Man makes clear that Dafoe's performance was an early highlight in the superhero cinematic canon. As over-the-top as he could be as the Green Goblin, Dafoe imbued his portrayal of the troubled Norman Osborn with pathos. Even though his costume eventually morphed into a far cry from anything the Goblin wore in the comics, Dafoe's Osborn stayed true to the character. While the rest of the movie occasionally plays fast-and-loose with the source material, having Osborn be a Tony Stark-esque weapons dealer instead of a more generic industrialist, the character does retain a key aspect of his origin by acquiring his powers from exposure to a chemical formula.
More important than that, though, is the fact that Dafoe's portrayal of Osborn came from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's seminal run on Amazing Spider-Man, from his strained relationship with son Harry to his obsession with masks. While he does horrible things, including attempting to murder Mary Jane, Dafoe still elicits some sympathy for the villain.
Of course, Osborn dies at the end of Spider-Man, but Harry inherits his father's obsession with Spider-Man, blaming the hero for Norman's death. A vision of Norman in Spider-Man 2 then leads Harry to find the Goblin gear and take on the mantle of New Goblin in Spider-Man 3. Harry eventually reconciles with Peter and sacrifices himself to save his friend's life, marking the last appearance of an Osborn until The Amazing Spider-Man 2. In that film, Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn takes on the Green Goblin mantle after his father's death.
There have been rumors of DeHaan reprising his role in No Way Home, but it's hard to imagine a Green Goblin who isn't Dafoe appearing in the film, especially after the meme resurfaced. Up to this point, Dafoe has played coy about appearing in No Way Home, but that sinister laugh that accompanied the pumpkin bomb in the first trailer and the Green Goblin's appearance on the new poster all point to the thiccest supervillain making his long-awaited comeback.
To see Green Goblin's return, Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters Dec. 17.Â