Although Tom Holland's Spider-Man faced a multiversal Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Way Home, Peter Parker can still face his very own Goblin in sequels such as Spider-Man 4. Currently, there is no Green Goblin in the MCU. However, there's some key narrative potential for the major Spider-Man villain to one day appear, using the events of No Way Home as a dark and traumatic foundation.
Played by Willem Dafoe, No Way Home's Green Goblin came from the same reality as Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man. However, he quickly became just as much of a nemesis to Holland's Peter Parker after killing his Aunt May, nearly turning the MCU's Webslinger into a killer himself seeking revenge. As such, the debut of an MCU Goblin in the future could be quite compelling and dark based on the actions of this first on-screen Norman Osborn (and his greener half).
Spider-Man Can Still Have A Green Goblin After No Way Home
At the end of No Way Home, Tom Holland's Spider-Man was prepared to kill the Green Goblin out of revenge, though he was thankfully stopped by Tobey Maguire's Webslinger. Likewise, all the multiversal villains were sent back to their own realities after they had all been cured. In Norman's case, this involved curing him of the serum in his system that had been causing the Goblin persona to take over his mind.
Clearly, this multiversal Green Goblin made a massive impact on the MCU's Peter Parker in ways he'll never forget, leaving Spider-Man with intense darkness and trauma after the murder of his Aunt May. While that's certainly something Peter will be working through and seems to have initially processed by the end of No Way Home, the consequences of the spell required to send all the villains home mean Spider-Man is without any kind of family, friends, or allies going forward. As such, the possible emergence of a Green Goblin from his own reality would undoubtedly create some major conflict within Peter.
How Spider-Man 4's Green Goblin Story Can Be Different
An arc where Peter Parker meets the main MCU Norman Osborn has large amounts of narrative potential, especially if this version of Osborn has yet to become the Green Goblin. This would then create a scenario in which Spider-Man would need to compartmentalize his trauma and bitterness toward the first Goblin he met, rather than projecting them onto this new version. However, there could then be major consequences if Spider-Man is in fact unable to do so.
Whether it's Norman Osborn or his son Harry who's also been the Green Goblin both on the page and screen, one can imagine the poetic irony to be had from a plot where Spider-Man becomes so fearful about what an Osborn might become that he inadvertently creates the MCU's Green Goblin himself. As such, this would be a dynamic and very dark story, building upon the actions of the Goblin from No Way Home. Likewise, the framing of Spider-Man and Green Goblin's rivalry in the MCU would be unique as it would be based on the actions of another reality's Osborn.
An MCU Green Goblin Could Be Bigger Than Just Spider-Man
While the aforementioned theory is just one way in which a new Goblin could debut, the benefit of having some kind of Norman Osborn in the MCU is huge. In the comics, Osborn gradually evolves into a much bigger villain in the Marvel Universe, becoming so much more than just Spider-Man's arch-foe. At one point he even ran dark versions of the Avengers and SHIELD. As such, there are definitely ways in which a future appearance could successfully happen without also creating feelings of redundancy.
The debut of a new Green Goblin is worthwhile for the MCU, especially after the foundational legacy created by Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn. There are ways to make it happen where the presence of the original Goblin in No Way Home can be a true advantage rather than a detriment for the future. To that end, the idea of Spider-Man having preexisting trauma and inadvertently motivating said debut is quite intriguing, whether it's in Spider-Man 4 or in future MCU movies.
