From Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Willem Dafoe played the most famous Spider-Man villain long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe even existed. As the Green Goblin, he threatened our title hero in Sam Raimi’s first film Spider-Man film, and later returned to the role pursuing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man No way home. Recently, the actor confirmed that he would be willing to come back again (“I could come back,” he told Entertainment Tonight), but the stark truth is that bringing Willem Dafoe back to the MCU would be a big mistake.
Willem Dafoe in the MCU
This is not an insult to Dafoe himself. He is a great actor and has long since earned the status of a Hollywood legend. To be honest, it was a real coup for Raimi to cast the man in his original Spider-Man film, and the veteran actor managed to channel equal parts pathos and mania in his performance as Peter Parker’s greatest enemy. Willem Dafoe’s acting abilities were never in question, but if he were to return to the MCU, it would be a sign of that once and for all Disney I’m running out of original ideas.
Even the biggest at this point Wonder Fans are starting to admit that the House of Ideas has… well, run out of ideas. After the superhero game, fatigue played a role in the transformation The miracles After becoming a historic box office bomb, Kevin Feige and his team decided to play a safety and inexplicably cast popular Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. as it Doctor Doomthe Avengers’ next big bad. Now there are reports that Chris Evans will also return avenger: End of the worldwhich makes it clear that Disney’s entire plan is to bring back everyone’s favorite artists and just hope that it puts butts in seats.
Different variants
And as cool as Willem Dafoe’s MCU premiere was No way homeIt’s important to note that all of Variant’s storytelling is a symptom of Marvel’s larger storytelling problem. While the comics have given us great alternate universe stories and Sony’s Spiderverse has shown how well this can work in film, the MCU has historically relied on variants as a simplified way to appeal to fanboy nostalgia. After all, why take the time to write a good story if the audience’s main concern is whether they see Patrick Stewart this way? Professor X again?
At the risk of sounding like an old crackpot (get off my lawn, younger fans!), audiences need to remember that every time a variant is used as a narrative crutch, it’s because an overpaid Disney writer isn’t wanted to show up with an unforgettable new villain or an exciting story. That’s why all the old school cameos are the worst thing about it No way home; It’s fun to see multiple Spideys team up on screen, but narratively there’s no point in Tom Holland’s Webhead fighting villains from another universe he’s never met.
It was fun to see though Willem Dafoe He’s probably the worst example of this in the MCU. Instead of Holland’s Spidey getting a memorable new villain like Vulture or Mysterio, he got the leftovers of Tobey Maguire. Emotionally, this film only changed Peter Parker by killing his aunt, which any villain could have done. No way home was generally well-received by fans, but it’s a member-driven movie, and aside from our nostalgia for those old Sony heroes and villains, there’s not much there for our actual hero and his world.
Willem Dafoe has expressed his interest in returning to the MCU, and he would probably give it his all if given half the chance. But he should never return, because Disney needs to learn to stop relying on nostalgia and multiversal gimmicks to compensate for the inability to give us anything new. It’s time for the House of Mouse to throw out its members’ berries like an old pumpkin bomb and attempt the kind of original storytelling that has made the Marvel Cinematic Universe one of the most popular franchises in the world.
Source: ET Online
