Norman Virgil Osborn is a character portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy and later the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise.

He uses advanced Oscorp armor and equipment to terrorize New York City and battle the local hero Spider-Man, whom Goblin would discover is the secret identity of Peter Parker.

Osborn and Goblin return in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) when a magical spell gone wrong breaks open the multiverse and causes past versions of them from a point prior to their deaths, to be transported to an alternate reality (MCU universe).

This record was once again rescinded and given to Hugh Jackman for his role in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) as the second titular character and Wesley Snipes's Blade.

During a festival in Times Square, Osborn, under the control of the Green Goblin kills the Oscorp board of directors, but is forced to retreat after being defeated in a fight against Spider-Man.

Spider-Man appears at the Bugle, but is kidnapped by the Green Goblin, who offers him a partnership and belittles his choice to become a hero, warning that the city will eventually turn against him.

However, Harry eventually learns the truth about Osborn's death and gives up his vendetta against Spider-Man, sacrificing himself to save Parker.

Osborn is then imprisoned by Strange, who prepares to use a magical device known as the Macchina de Kadavus, which contains the corrupted spell, to send him and the other villains back to meet their fates, much to his horror.

[g] Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and its second season, will explore an alternate universe version of Peter Parker's origin story (voiced by Hudson Thames) and early days using the Spider-Man persona as he is mentored by an alternate version of Osborn (voiced by Colman Domingo) in his freshman and sophomore years of high school.

[4] 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).

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.

[5] 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).

Dafoe explained that Osborn was "a very complex character on the page", and that he could relate to him due to "[his] ambition and his desire for perfection and how that perverts so much of his relationship to people".

[22] Dafoe was initially hesitant to reprise the role, but was more open when producer Amy Pascal and director Jon Watts pitched No Way Home to him before he had received a script; he described this as "the same, but different".

The Green Goblin is subsequently created through Osborn's exposure to gas, being portrayed as a violent, sadistic, and unhinged[25] psychopath that believes his powers place him above normal people, attempting to recruit Spider-Man into joining him.

[27] Adam Rosenberg from Mashable opined that Dafoe "owned every single one of his scenes" as he "charted Osborn's experimental serum-fueled descent into madness", and that the actor's voice sounded similar to what a reader would hear in their head when reading a comic book villain's speech bubbles.

[28] The Goblin was felt by Oliver Vandervoort of Game Rant as "a bit more sinister" in No Way Home compared to his original portrayal, with the character being "a little darker and a little more dangerous" in the film.

[29] Praising the decision to have the character maskless in No Way Home, James Troughton at TheGamer called Dafoe's facial expressions "viscerally unsettling", going from a "lost old man desperate for help" to an unhinged killer "as easy as slipping on a pair of gloves", crediting this as giving a slasher edge to a superhero film.

Osborn's reactions to the Goblin's crimes are cited by Gleason as "proof that he is not evil" despite being an "imperfect" father to Harry and letting his "arrogant ambitions spiral out of control".

The upgraded costume is depicted with a purple undersuit beneath the green armor with the Goblin wearing goggles and incorporating the retractable blades from his glider into his left gauntlet.

Screen Rant's Dan Zinski described the suit as tattered and noted the goal of the MCU's costume designs is "to find some middle ground" between the comic book version and the "more realistic".

[23] Holland and his MCU Spider-Man films co-star Jacob Batalon called Goblin "a landmark villain", praising Dafoe's ability "to bring a difficult character to life" and particularly the mirror scene, before filming No Way Home;[41] Holland had believed the Goblin "[was] difficult to pull off in live-action" in August 2019, a year before his praises with Batalon.

[45] While reviewing the films in April 2007, IGN's Richard George commented that Green Goblin's armor, particularly the helmet, was "almost comically bad... Not only is it not frightening, it prohibits expression".

[46] Steven Scaife at Vice wrote that Dafoe's Goblin "represents everything that's fun about superhero villains, as well as everything that's great about Raimi's campy films", also commending Dafoe's voice and body language, which helped overcome the bulky Green Goblin costume that he compared to that of a Power Rangers villain.

Separate from their film accolades, Dafoe and Maguire held the Guinness World Record for "the longest career as a live-action Marvel character.