Spider-Man: No Way Home concept artist Ryan Meinerding revealed new details about the destruction of Willem Dafoe‘s Green Goblin mask.
Why was the original Green Goblin mask destroyed in No Way Home?
Per ComicBookMovie.com, Meinderding revealed key production design details about the Marvel Cinematic Universe installment in the book Spider-Man: No Way Home – The Art of the Movie. The concept artist discussed how Dafoe’s Green Goblin costume from Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man (2002) was brought back only for Norman Osborn to destroy the armored mask following his introduction into the MCU. Meinerding credits Dafoe’s performance as the primary reason for dropping the mask altogether.
“As much as I like that helmet, Willem’s face is so expressive, and he can change from Norman into the Goblin so seamlessly and eerily,” Meinerding said. “One of the best decisions made in the film was to make being the Goblin about his face more than anything else.”
The original Green Goblin costume from 2002’s Spider-Man was a 580-piece suit that Dafoe wore despite the discomfort it caused him. Initially, a comic-accurate mask was designed for the movie with animatronics produced by the company Amalgamated Dynamics. Dafoe and Spider-Man producers, however, felt the design was too silly and opted for a more modern design.
Without the need for re-creating the Goblin mask, Meinderding and the No Way Home filmmakers gave the iconic Marvel supervillain a full upgrade for the movie’s finale by mixing the original costume with a throwback purple hoodie reminiscent of his comic book counterpart.
“It’s one of the more fun things about the way that we try to approach costume design for these characters,” Meinerding said. “We’re looking at what tools we have at our disposal, the colors we have on our palette, and how we make them work together and put them in a story order that makes sense but also ends in a place that feels like the character from the comics. And I think they did an amazing job to accomplish that.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home – The Art of the Movie is now available at bookstores everywhere. Spider-Man: No Way Home is available to stream on Starz on the Starz Channel through a subscription to Apple TV, the Roku Channel, and Prime Video.
