Spider-Man No Way Home makes no sense

This is not my work but I couldn't believe someone made a rant so long it has more words than the actual script of the movie it dissects.

Brace yourself.

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tl;dr in the reply

For context, this was originally Youtube video essay that got blocked by Sony. I deleted it and tried to plead my case with them, but they blocked it again after a few weeks. I mentioned that if that happened, I would take the script and convert it into an OP of a thread, so here it is. Without further ado, read on if you wish!

I love Spider-Man No Way Home. This was the first movie date between my now wife, and me. The hype for the movie back then was practically immortal. The world was also a different place. It was still the pandemic, it was the first full year of the vaccine so we all had to show the clerks the card as proof that we're vaccinated. Spider-Man No Way Home broke a lot of records. And not just records during a life of social distancing and quarantine.

Spider-Man No Way Home is the number 8 highest grossing film of all time, the 6th when it was released, and it's the highest grossing Spider-Man film of all time. That's a title that it still has. So we've all seen it, and we all love it. Because like, what's there not to love about bringing Tobey Maguire especially, and Andrew Garfield back? But ever since I watched it that first time, and every time after that, I can't help but feel like the movie is just full of plot holes.

I think Spider-Man No Way Home succeeds in what it executes, which is a massive scale multiversal live action Spider-Verse type movie to fully draw on the nostalgia of older audience members. But that's it. As a movie itself, the plot really falls apart when you try to make sense of it. And that's the thing; if No Way Home was the type of movie that you just turn your brain off and watch only for the spectacle, I could roll with their lack of logic.

But it's not. No Way Home with the dialogue and story beats it pushes out there constantly wants the audience to really think about what's going on and the decisions that the characters are making. So even though I love the movie, I'm about to tear it apart. I'm hardly the first person to criticize it, but I'm gonna be bringing up points of criticism I haven't seen anyone else on YouTube talk about.

If you love it and don't wanna see it criticized, you probably won't wanna read this, but if you're open to honest feedback, strap in coz I'm gonna go hard from beginning to end.

So before the movie came out, there were dozens of rumors about what the plot of the film was going to be. A lot of them ended up being quite true, but a lot also were very off of the mark. At this point, over 4 years later, I'd say maybe 50% of the rumors were true. But as we sat down listening to the news guy and Mysterio going off, the movie picked up right where Far From Home left off. All the actors are visibly 2 years older, but MJ is wearing the same outfit to signify that we're continuing off of that moment. Now one of the coolest revelations from Far From Home was how JK Simmons got brought back to reprise his role as an alternate universe version of his iconic role as James Jonah Jameson. Little did we know at the time in 2019 that the sequel was gonna be all about the multiverse. But more on Jameson later.

MJ & Spidey swing through the subway then swing through Sunnyside before getting to Forest Hills - I actually recognize a lot of those blocks since I lived in Queens so many times, and then we get to Happy & Aunt May breaking up, and then we got that cool one shot scene in the apartment before they all find out that they're surrounded. Then eventually he gets arrested by the Department of Damage Control and this starts my first set of questions with the movie. Questions that don't really get answered.
I get that because Mysterio is a master of illusions that people will be legitimately fooled by what they're seeing and what they're hearing, but this movie took place in Phase 4 of the MCU, right off the heels of Avengers Endgame where superheroes including Spider-Man, is responsible for saving the universe! This whole section of the movie is something that I take issue with. Jameson will Jameson, that's not my issue, it's everyone else around Spider-Man.

When Peter eventually goes back to school, they make a whole joke out of one of the teachers actually secretly being a big fan and creating a Spider-Man shrine without any of the students participating.

View: https://youtu.be/lcMFQ9wRFHE?si=efZ82FfwWaJuGs4b&t=68 watch from 1:08 to 2:10

But that's another thing - if Spider-Man's own peers in high school found out his secret identity, wouldn't that hype them up? Like, they're going to school with a superhero, they know who he is now, I feel like everyone would be hyped about it and should a teacher build some sort of shrine for him, then students absolutely WOULD wanna help build it. I don't think that's an unusual idea. So the behavior and reactions of the students also don't make sense to me. Yeah, I would expect them to all want to record him with their phones on social media, but I would also expect them to be hyped up by the fact that they have been going to school with Spider-Man. A superhero. An Avenger! The lack thereof in their reaction is what gets to me.

Even Flash Thompson. We first saw him reacting to finding out about Spider-Man's secret identity on social media. And his reaction is kinda cringe to me. All he says is 1 word, "no!"

View: https://youtu.be/ww_Vz7-buOk?si=OvFsM33bG6N4_ERL&t=151 watch from 2:31 to 2:37

Like, it's not just disbelief, like he can't believe Peter Parker is Spider-Man, his reaction to me seemed more like "no! Not Peter! Anyone but Peter Parker!" Do you know what I mean? And while we're on the topic of Flash, this dude's character arc in the MCU doesn't make any sense either. And I'm dating this all the way back to his casting. Remember sevenwebheads reaction just to the announcement of his casting?

View: https://youtu.be/tfsPgPO1Mlc?si=RWNlHNOOItbb_aCA&t=101 watch from 1:41 to 1:47

No bro, he doesn't look like a nemesis to me at all whatsoever. No disrespect to Tony Revolori. Lemme just clarify my stance on him. His portrayal of Flash Thompson does not come off at all as the bully that Peter Parker always has to deal with. But I'm not gonna say he's miscast either. Revolori is 5'6", MY HEIGHT! Yeah, I'm a short man. And some sources say he's even shorter than that. But I'm good with it, you know?

I'm all for short men's representation since we just never have enough of it, as Hollywood is obsessed with portraying the image of men that are not only fit, but also just tall. But we deserve representation too. And he's also of Guatemalan descent, which I'm also fine with. I'm totally cool with racebending a fictional white character for diversity. But my problem with Revolori's portrayal is that he just doesn't come off as Flash Thompson the bully for me.

Typically Flash Thompson is supposed to be a jock, like a very stereotypical high school bully. And this is what I meant, Tony Revolori definitely could've pulled that off. I'm confident there if the script went that way, and the actor could've just hit the gym to help look the part. But MCU Flash Thompson isn't really that. He's almost kind of a nerd, similarly to Peter Parker.

He's part of the academic decathlon as we saw in Spider-Man Homecoming, and he decides to be a bully to Peter for like, literally, whatever reason. And I say it like that because the MCU Spider-Man movies never provide any sort of development or background exposition for several of their supporting characters, Flash Thompson included. Like why is he a bully to Peter? Other than to be comic accurate? And if that's all they were going for, why not also make him a jock?

In fact, the movie wanted us to sympathize with him at the end of Far From Home. He's a rich privileged ass New Yorker, and everyone returns home to get picked up, and there's that one scene of his parents still off doing rich people stuff, too rich to pick up their own son.

View: https://youtu.be/PX-RFDycRXg?si=4ZEN2FuBXJZ7FF0k&t=111 watch from 1:51 to 1:58

And then later in this movie, he dyed his hair blonde. Was this just the actor's choice? His hair was black in the first shot, and that's just because it's picking up right after the events of Far From Home. But the next we see him is after Spider-Man's secret is out there in the whole world. I still don't get why everyone who associates with Spider-Man got their lives ruined, but the movie makes it a focal point. Yet, somehow, it doesn't affect Flash Thompson? What?!

Like yeah for anyone who went to school with Peter, you would know that he and Flash aren't friends, but this dude went out of his way, ALL the way out of his way to associate his own ass with Spider-Man. I don't see a lot of people talking about this, but he wrote a whole ass book.

https://youtu.be/lcMFQ9wRFHE?si=vakuyWXpJVPp3ue8&t=41 watch from 00:41 to 00:55

Did he just have that book pre-planned for the day that Spider-Man's secret identity got revealed? What exactly was the point of showing this? And the reason this isn't making sense to me is because again, one of the focal points in Act I of the movie is how damaging it is for an individual's reputation to associate with Spider-Man. But Flash Thompson puts himself out there and associates with Spider-Man ON PURPOSE! So how exactly was his reputation intact? Even if MIT is fully aware that he's not friends with Peter, does it not say something about him that he's lying for attention?

So he got into MIT, and for a moment it looks like he does feel for our heroes that none of them got in. Again none of this makes sense like they didn't get in because as Ned says "Yeah, because we're actually friends with Spider-Man!"

But again, this dude went out in public CLAIMING to be the vigilante's best friend, putting himself on the spot, writing a book about it all and he gets accepted into MIT? I don't get it yo. That's a major plot hole to me but I'm not done yet with my critique of Flash. Later on, Peter called him because he needed to know where the chancellor for MIT is, and even then, Flash was still being a jerk to Peter. Like just a few minutes ago I thought he was trying to be friendly with all of them even though they didn't get into MIT, but his first words to Peter on the phone were "...what's in it for me? I'm risking a lot just talking to you."

BRO WHAT? You risked everything by writing a book about Spider-Man and parading it around as much as you could! And on top of that, like, why is he still being a jerk to Peter? He loved Spider-Man and it seems like he still does even after learning the secret identity, so why is he still being a jerk to that person after learning they're one in the same? And, it's after Peter agrees to tell everyone that Flash is his best friend that he gives Peter the information he needs.

https://youtu.be/EgqyNam6bKg?si=xvdSvOMYiSIawQXu&t=24 watch from 00:24 to 00:32

So clearly, not only is the risk of talking and associating with Spider-Man not even a concern for him, but that's literally exactly what he wants! And somehow it's not ruining his life the same way it did for MJ, Ned, & Aunt May. This shit was a big huge massive plot hole to me, and we haven't even gotten into the multiversal stuff yet. And speaking of that, I got my own thoughts on the MIT chancellor which we'll get to during the fight with Dr. Octopus.

I gotta say, Charlie Cox showing up as Matt Murdock absolutely blew my mind. I'm sober now but I was edible'd out when I saw it, and when the whole crowd cheered when they showed Matt's face, man I just can't describe it. He was only in the movie for like a minute, but finally, finally he met Peter Parker. I waited so long for that, and this one minute tease was just to show the audience that there's more Daredevil to come. But anyway, more to the point of this section in the video, Matt's the one who also brings the court of public opinion to Peter's attention.

https://youtu.be/ww_Vz7-buOk?si=fvHARQd0bgrU8YCm&t=537 watch from 8:57 to 9:02

And having to watch out for that is a fair assessment to make, I just don't see how the vast majority of the public opinion on Spider-Man, an Avenger responsible for saving the universe, would be so divided. I also predicted that maybe they'd reveal Bullseye as the one who threw the brick, but it turned out not to matter who it was that threw it. Anyway, after they all get rejected from MIT, Peter got the idea of going to Dr. Strange for help thanks to the Halloween decorations at MJ's cafe. Wong is there too…and eventually the subject of the Runes of Kof-Kal are brought up.

Now even though Wong is there for just a few minutes, apparently there is a deleted scene where he spends more time trying to talk sense into Strange and dissuade him from casting the spell. Strange calls it a standard spell of forgetting, but it's the dangers of messing it up that set the events of the film in motion.

https://youtu.be/GvfXiZDAKfs?si=hm_yvgujJVoWkIGo&t=175 watch from 2:55 to 2:57

Now the first thing I'm gonna say about the spell, is that I blame Peter for it mostly. When this movie first came out, I saw most people blaming Dr. Strange for it. Now, no 2 ways about it, the setup for it is pretty bad: obviously if there is so much that could go wrong, then it's not such a standard, or simple spell, is it? Anyway yeah so Peter starts to question the power of the spell, and Strange makes concessions after adding MJ and Ned to the list of people waived from it. And this next piece of dialogue is why I blame Peter.

https://youtu.be/1HIk9mrBB7o?si=DxHKzG4RF3Tt9SG6&t=318 watch from 5:18 to 5:28

Words have meaning. If you swore that you were done making concessions to the spell, then keep your mouth shut and let the sorcerer work and accept the consequences of what you wished for. But Peter didn't do that. He continued to run his mouth which is what then causes the spell to break. And he has the nerve to talk back after the spell got out of control.

https://youtu.be/1HIk9mrBB7o?si=0h-rPeXRryzngeiE&t=380 watch from 6:20 to 6:24

Like bro it doesn't matter if it was 5 times or 6 times or 20 times! You should have just stopped when you said you were going to stop. So that's my #1 point. You can blame them both for the spell going wrong, but it was MOSTLY Peter's fault. My #2 point, is that, does this spell travel through both space, and also time?

This isn't entirely Dr. Strange's fault, it's just how bad the script is - and I'll get to this in just a second - but let me take this moment to talk about another one of Dr. Strange's epic failures in this movie. When I watched the trailer, I was absolutely sure that Spider-Man was gonna lose the fight against Dr. Strange. And then the movie came out and he won. Now it's definitely cool how Spider-Man won, match versus magic, but Dr. Strange was acting so incompetently earlier on when he could've easily ended it.

When he put Peter into the astral plane, his spidey sense was still activated which made it hard for Dr. Strange to just snatch it from his hands. Now lemme ask you something. Once Strange figured out that just taking the device wasn't gonna work, why didn't he just conjure up a magic rope, tie Spider-Man's body down, and snatch it from his hand then? That was dumb and it was just prolonged. It could've ended right there.

I really wonder if there will be more to Ned and his potential magic powers which Dr. Strange lowkey was impressed by, once he shows back up again at the end. And when Dr. Strange starts casting the second spell, there's one line in particular which came back to the front of my mind.

https://youtu.be/ww_Vz7-buOk?si=i4mHqy4-hbuvYe5A&t=364 watch from 6:04 to 6:11

Dr. Strange's spell is supposed to make the whole world forget about Peter Parker. Now if I am interpreting "the world" to just mean planet Earth, that means Nick Fury who's on vacation during the events of this movie and the previous movie, whenever he returns to earth, he's gonna be feeling like he's in a fever dream when the conversation of Spider-Man comes up, because everyone will be talking about him oblivious to his secret identity, which he would still have knowledge of, if the spell didn't affect him.

And this goes for everyone else not on planet earth during the course of Dr. Strange casting the second spell too. So that means potentially Kamala Khan, Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau who gets lost in the multiverse anyway, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, and so on and so forth. But that's IF the interpretation of the entire world means the entire planet earth, and not the entire universe. The movie doesn't clarify this, among other things.

And speaking of that second spell, one thing that I do appreciate the movie for is how the famous phrase "with great power comes great responsibility" is actually something that Peter actually has to live with and live through at the end of the movie. When he talked to Dr. Strange about casting a second spell and the consequences of it, he accepted that fate.

So what I am trying to say is, in this case for this movie, the great power that Peter has, comes in the form of a powerful friend, and that's Dr. Strange. And the great responsibility he has is accepting the consequences of Dr. Strange casting a second spell to repair the fractures of the multiverse at the cost of his loved ones forgetting all about him. I thought that was a great way to apply the iconic phrase into the story.

I also think that this whole ordeal is what made Dr. Strange have a soft spot for America Chavez in his next movie, the Multiverse of Madness, since he was dealing with Spider-Man the whole time in this movie who he considers a kid. And yes even though he himself also forgot Spider-Man's identity, I think he is still aware of the person's youth and he himself also implied that he has love for Spider-Man.

https://youtu.be/IQRHqeCZLTw?si=4PdT0SkQLMJCNvtf&t=54~ watch from 00:54 to 1:15

But the second spell also makes me wonder how much Ned, MJ, Happy, and whoever else were close to Peter, how much their memories were altered. The rerelease of No Way Home in theaters partially answered that question but not directly, but here's what I mean.

Basically, just like how Dr. Strange says that in the multiverse there is an infinite number of people who know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, it seems like there's also an infinite number of fake histories that the second spell could have changed everyone's memories into. So what I am curious to know (since the movie didn't really convey it), is, what was the fake history that the Runes of Kof-Kol 2.0 replaced everyone's real history with?

After the Runes of Kof-Kol 2.0 is cast, MJ opens her eyes. She doesn't know who Peter Parker is anymore, but the world, including her, still has the knowledge of Spider-Man the Avenger. And she also confessed her love to that person just moments before the second spell was cast. So in her mind, what was the spell that was cast? What was it for? If it was for making her lose the knowledge of Spider-Man's identity, then do all of her memories of Spider-Man still just change to him wearing a mask the whole time?

Is she gonna spend the rest of her life just trying to figure out what Spider-Man's identity was since she knows it was part of her memory that Dr. Strange wiped out? Does she remember being in love with the vigilante Spider-Man? Am I making sense? I know this sounds convoluted, but that's because so many parts of the movie are convoluted and aren't really conclusive.

I want to say, yes, she remembers being in love with the vigilante Spider-Man despite not knowing his identity. I think the movie ending with her still wearing the broken necklace is a very clear indication of that, and maybe her memory of the spell was just that a spell needed to be cast to fix the multiverse and Spider-Man was telling her that he won't be able to see her for a very long time and that's why she became emotional.

This makes sense to me, but you see what I'm doing here. I have to make up my own explanation since the movie itself failed to elaborate the effects of the spell on the people who were close to Peter Parker. But something else that I am forgiving of that the movie also doesn't really address, is that thanks to the first spell, the marvel cinematic universe gets a total of 8 visitors that we know of:

• Dr. Otto Octavius
• Dr. Norman Osborn
• Dr. Curt Connors
• Mr. Max Dillon
• Mr. Flint Marco
• Mr. Eddie Brock

Plus the two extra Spider-Men for a total of 8 multiversal guests in the MCU.

Now, these characters are all people from other cinematic universes. That's very convenient to the plot, and I can be forgiving of that because that's what the whole movie is about of course. We went to the movie theater during the pandemic for this reason, nostalgic fan service. So yeah, I can be lenient about this convenience of all these specific characters from previous movies being the ones that show up because of Dr. Strange's spell going out of control.

But what I cannot be forgiving of, is how the Runes of Kof-Kol brought all of these people in from different periods of time. And I'm gonna get in depth with every single one of these characters, but each of them, if you listen to their dialogue, they each talk about the latest events of their universe in the last movie they appeared in.

Dr. Octopus kept bringing up how Norman Osborn is dead.

https://youtu.be/EHHTl6k5-v8?si=01e-SCs5Aztfkb1C&t=51~ watch from 00:51 to to 00:55

Norman himself just talked about how the goblin serum changed him.

https://youtu.be/UVFL8tME9fU?si=sLp6rhabMCNg0QAm&t=115~ watch from 1:55 to 2:05

Spider-Man 1 & 2 chronologically are maybe 2 years apart, and then Flint Marco who's from Spider-Man 3 which maybe took place another couple of years after Spider-Man 2, talked about how both of these villains before him died.

https://youtu.be/pEIBAV2qP-Q?si=vCdzHcYcb6US1LQJ&t=60~ watch from 1:00 to 1:22

The actors were also all given makeup to look younger. And then there's Elektro and the Lizard, the former who talks about how the latter tried to turn the whole city into lizards.

https://youtu.be/Tl2XAw5Mu0M?si=pIE9RzV_FOSmBFoY&t=14 watch from 00:14 to 00:15

The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2 I think are two years apart. But the two Spider-Men that show up, as well as Eddie Brock, and maybe even Sandman I dunno, it seems like they all traveled to the MCU within the same year that the movie is taking place. So how is it that all those other characters from the past years were brought to the MCU into the present day timeline?

These people are all accidentally brought to the MCU because they know Peter Parker is Spider-Man, but how is it that the Runes of Kof-Kol brought them come through from different points in time? Dr. Strange didn't say ANYTHING about time traveling with the spell going wrong, only universe traveling.

It's one thing for them to show up in the MCU for knowing Spider-Man's secret identity, but it's another for the timelines to also factor into it. But the whole thing with Spider-Man's identity also doesn't make sense and we'll talk about that once we get to Elektro. Let's start with Doc Ock, since he's the first multiversal character to show up.

The trailer made it look like he says "hello Peter" before he puts the suit on, but as I correctly predicted, he says it after the suit is already on. And speaking of the suit, can we all agree that Spider-Man would have lost this fight miserably if it wasn't for the nanotech? Dr. Octopus was more ruthless here than he ever was in Spider-Man 2 the movie. I will cut Peter some slack for that because he did have to save a bunch of people caught in the crossfire including the chancellor while fighting Doc Ock, but even when it's just 1on1, I feel like the tentacles triumphed over the spider arms.

I also feel like Tony Stark definitely would have thought of the safeguard wherein part of the suit gets compromised and therefore a backup plan could be initiated, but I also wonder, what else could the nanotech have done for Doc Ock's tentacles other than give them a red finish? What extra power would he have gained? We don't ever really see that.

Now getting back to the MIT chancellor, the first thing I'm gonna talk about here is a regurgitation on what I said before about Spider-Man and his reputation. Peter had to convince the chancellor to give himself, Ned, and MJ a change at MIT meanwhile this lady is already reading about how Flash Thompson is supposedly best friends with Spider-Man and Flash already got into the school. Which means Flash was really throwing it in her face about how supposedly close he is with Peter Parker, and yet it does nothing to his reputation. Nonsense, but anyway, once Doc Ock shows up and her Uber driver runs away, she's locked in the car. Now the movie starts to get dumb again.

Like, all she has to do is reach into the front side to push the button for unlocking the door, which I'm presuming she did later, because we see her trying to open the door that's barricaded by the bridge. Um, chancellor, all you have to do is open the door on the OTHER side that's not barricaded! HELLO?! So yeah, that was really dumb.

Then after that, she's hanging for dear life by a spider thread, and it's so convenient that when Doc Ock started attacking Peter UNDER the bridge, that he didn't get knocked into the web that he made to save her. That was really convenient for the movie. Then after the fight, she calls Peter a hero because he saved her life.

https://youtu.be/ioeoCbDiMvE?si=5wITLxXMNuLjQh5m&t=390 watch from 6:30 to 6:49

And I get that she just went through a near-death experience, but like, all the news coverage about Spider-Man being a superhero and an Avenger, did all of that really just get tossed out the window just because of Mysterio? Like if Matt never had Matt Murdock to get all the charges dropped, it wouldn't matter?

The court of public opinion, opinions that matter, just don't care to think that Mysterio was actually a crook who framed Spider-Man who already has a track record of being a savior? So yeah I just don't think that adds up but the scene pretty much ended in Peter's favor until the Green Goblin showed up. That's the point where Peter then gets brought back to the Sanctum Santorum and Dr. Strange went ahead and explained to him WTF is going on.

Later on while Doc Ock is imprisoned, he explains to our heroes how the Green Goblin already died years ago.

https://youtu.be/EHHTl6k5-v8?si=01e-SCs5Aztfkb1C&t=51~ watch from 00:51 to to 1:04

Bro, do you even know what year you're in? Do you not realize that you traveled not only through space but also through time?!

And the fact that the movie kept making dialogue like this, is why I cannot treat this as a movie that you just turn your brain off for and just roll with. This also brings up another question which the movie never bothers to address, but these multiversal characters, are they the same exact characters from the previous movies? Or are they variants from universes parallel to the universes of their respective movie franchises? I'll get into this more toward the end, but as for what point in time Doc Ock got brought into the MCU, there's this line to attribute it to

https://youtu.be/pEIBAV2qP-Q?si=N7ydU1h6nVq7NHDm&t=84 watch from 1:24 to 1:39

And if we take this at face value, then it's referring to this scene.

https://youtu.be/G4L-wBrUvoI?si=DlRg0Sw5B5VRgWl5 watch from 3:53 to 3:58

But we all watched Spider-Man 2…that movie doesn't end with Doc Ock getting zapped into another universe right after he choked Spider-Man. It ends with him drowning in the river, as Sandman says. And again, this movie only references the events of the movies. So either Doc Ock is misremembering what happened to him moments before he got brought to the MCU, or is this a Doc Ock from a slightly different universe than the one from the Spider-Man 2 movie.

I'm gonna elaborate on this whole point of whether these characters are the OGs or if they're variants later on, but I'm also gonna bring up this plot hole of space & time getting ripped apart by Dr. Strange's spell every time the movie commits it. But let's talk now about the Green Goblin because he's also the main villain of the movie.

Going back to Dr. Strange's spell, this dude, similarly to Doc Ock, not only traveled through the cosmos, but also through time. How? How and why would the Runes of Kof-Kol break space AND time like this for the spell going wrong? And why didn't Dr. Strange also mention that different years in time are a factor when explaining to Peter what went wrong with the spell?

Norman Osborn's first set of dialogue at Aunt May's food drive also opened up the question of, if they are the exact same characters as the previous movies, then at what point during these character's lives were they transported to the MCU?

With the glider showing up with Goblin, it makes guessing the time for him even trickier, but the fact that we have to even guess is another reason why the plot of the movie is so weak since it's not specified. But anyway, my guess is that he showed up moments right before his death in the first Spider-Man movie. There was a line in the trailer that was cut from the movie that Dr. Strange said which does sort of back this up.

https://youtu.be/JfVOs4VSpmA?si=Bid_fOD5w2G9W4zJ&t=97 watch from 1:37 to 1:42

I guess they cut that line because it doesn't really fit for a good amount of these villains, but I'll elaborate more about this toward the end. Getting back to the Green Goblin, we see Norman struggling with the mental goblin disorder here in No Way Home more than we saw him struggle with it in the Spider-Man movie. There, he sounded like he already gave into it, but here, it seems like he wants to break free from it.

https://youtu.be/1P3JrbHnEYU?si=3ILvBTVYVsjoNvRe&t=37 from from 00:37 to 00:39

This catches Aunt May's attention and she makes it a mission for Spider-Man to cure these villains. And I gotta be honest, making the whole plot of the movie about curing these villains was something I really disliked, but I'm gonna leave that for later too.

You remember me saying in the beginning how maybe 50% of the rumors about this movie I heard were true? Which means 50% were false. One rumor that got a lot of steam which I thought would be true and ended up being false, was that the Green Goblin would lie to Peter and tell him that Spider-Man killed them all in their universe and they don't want to suffer that fate. Peter falls for Goblin's trick and that's how they all get away.

So in the movie, it definitely is because of Green Goblin that Peter's mission to cure them all goes wrong, but not only do none of them really want to be cured, I just don't see how curing them would also save them. Norman also says

https://youtu.be/UVFL8tME9fU?si=fT47M7cgKeQH3c6-&t=101 watch from 1:41 to 1:48

So I don't think there will ever be an MCU version of the Green Goblin. An alternate version exists in the cartoon Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and there was also a theory that MCU Norman Osborn was the secret party interested in Pym Tech during Antman and the Wasp. That just ended up being a loose end of the MCU as more and more time has passed and more installments to this franchise have been added.

Another rumor about this movie was how this Green Goblin was going to find the MCU Norman Osborn, and kill him to try and take his place. That rumor was also obviously false, and I just don't think we will see an MCU version of Green Goblin. We already have a movie of MCU Spider-Man fighting this villain, which is this movie, even though the villain is not from the same universe. And we also have a trilogy of this MCU Spider-Man having a best friend in the form of Ned Leeds, even though his memory gets wiped but that's not the point - he's best friends with Peter for the whole trilogy, and it doesn't make sense to me for him to have a new best friend in the form of Harry Osborn. A new love interest maybe, but not a new best friend.