Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers ahead – and they're pretty major.
As fans try to untangle the wicked web of Spider-Man: No Way Home, we can still hear the cackle of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin from what many are calling the best Spidey movie of all time. Throwing caution to the wind and ignoring Spider-Man 3's villain overkill, No Way Home was its very own Ravencroft Institute thanks to Dafoe, Molina, and the rest. However, did director Jon Watts hide one more fearsome foe right under our noses?
Across Tom Holland's trilogy, we've come to know and love the jovial Ned Leeds. Peter Parker's BFF was along for the ride in No Way Home, which stopped short of confirming him as the villainous Hobgoblin. Following in the footsteps of Mordo, Sharon Carter, and maybe even Wanda Maximoff, Jacob Batalon's loveable Leeds could really be the next hero to break bad. It's all thanks to No Way Home making a few Doctor Strange-inspired winks to the future of Ned.
For those who need a refresher, Ned Leeds famously took the mantle of the third Hobgoblin in the comics. He was sent to investigate the villainous Hobgoblin while working at the Daily Bugle, but was inadvertently brainwashed into becoming him as a stooge for the criminal underworld.
Ned stood in for OG Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley on several occasions, and was eventually murdered by an assassin called Foreigner. His death haunted Peter for years, and even though it's typically convoluted, it's not something totally out of the realms of possibility for an MCU spin.
There were two pretty pointed references to Ned practising his glider skills, with Peter's guy in the chair directly saying, "Peter, I promise you, I won't turn into a supervillain and try to kill you."
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Later, Ned scooted up to Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker and asked if he has a best friend. Throwing back to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, Peter said his friend died in his arms after he tried to kill him. Even though this was James Franco's Harry Osborn/Green Goblin, it's some dangerous foreshadowing for Ned's potential future.
Batalon himself has said he'd love to wear the orange cape, previously telling ScreenRant: "That just further validates my theory of Ned becoming Hobgoblin, but hey... But it'd be so great [if] they're not going to want me to die. [I hope] they're going to want me to stay on and be part of the Sinister Six. That's just my theory."
Before No Way Home came out, some expected a Hobgoblin twist thanks to an official Marvel account called spideyno1fan_. It was a faux Flash Thompson account that shared an Instagram poll asking whether we prefer "Boring Betty" or Boring Ned". Here, Flash had doodled over Ned to make him look like Hobgoblin.
Ultimately, No Way Home had the perfect opportunity to make Hobgoblin Ned canon. With the Multiverse blown wide open and a whole host of "sinister" foes leaking in from the Maguire and Garfield days, would it really have been that hard to include a post-credits stinger of alternate Ned zooming in while wearing full Hobgoblin getup?
Ned himself spent a moment postulating whether there are other Ned Leedses out there. Even if we haven't seen them in live action, it's a logical assumption to make.
Seeing Ned evolve into the Hobgoblin seems unlikely. It's much the same with Tony Revolori's Flash Thompson, who (in theory) could become the carrier of Venom and become Agent Venom. As it stands, it looks like the MCU is taking Ned down a different route. It's unclear what parts of their character arcs remain thanks to Doctor Strange's spell – but that makes our heads hurt just thinking about it.
If Ned's newfound love of crafting portals remains, he could be setting up shop at the Sanctum Sanctorum as Doc's next apprentice.
Across his relatively brief time in the MCU, Holland's Web-Head has faced more heartache than the average hero. Having his best friend become a villain might be a step too far. Thankfully, there's sure to be more to Ned's story. After Amy Pascal went full Tom Holland and dropped a clanger that a new trilogy was in the works, Kevin Feige has dialled things down and confirmed Spider-Man 4 is in development.
Up there with Batman, Spider-Man has one of the best catalogue of villains out there. Who knows, maybe Spider-Man 4 is cueing up a Sinister Twelve lineup with everyone from Hobgoblin to Chameleon, Jackal to Tombstone? As long as J Jonah Jameson's son gets to become Man-Wolf, we don't really mind.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is in cinemas now.
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Tom Chapman is a pop culture-loving writer and NCTJ-accredited Broadcast Journalist with over seven years of experience covering the small and silver screen.
Starting his career with a post at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom took on freelancing full-time with regular stints at Digital Spy, Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources.
These days, you can still find him covering all things Marvel and Star Wars at Digital Spy, while dipping his toe in bylines at Yahoo! and IGN.
Tom likes to think his spirit animal is a cross between Gale Weathers and Olenna Tyrell.
