In that film, Dane DeHaan's Harry Osborn takes on the Green Goblin mantle after his father's death. 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. 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. 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. RELATED: Morbius Trailer Hints at More Spider-Man Villains - But Are They Merely Easter Eggs? While he does horrible things, including attempting to murder Mary Jane, Dafoe still elicits some sympathy for the villain. 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 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. 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. 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. RELATED: Spider-Man: No Way Home 'Breaks' the Peter Parker/Doctor Strange Relationship 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. Now, after originating in 2020, the meme has made a comeback as the hype for No Way Home has ramped up.
Others went a less topical route, comparing the Goblin's approach to grabbing some shredded cheese at 3 A.M. and the Pixar logo. 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.
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.