Spider-Man on PS4 Shows How to Get Norman Osborn in MCU
Since Marvel struck a deal to share the movie rights to Spider-Man with Sony, there’s been a reluctance to bring in some of Spidey’s most classic villains into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
We’ve had Vulture and Shocker introduced to the MCU, while Mysterio will be the villain in Far From Home. But as far as we know, there are no plans to introduce Sandman, Venom, Electro, The Lizard, The Rhino, Doctor Octopus, or Green Goblin to the MCU, as these were all major antagonists in the previous Sony films.
Part of the reason behind this is because Marvel’s first task was to reinvigorate interest in Spidey, after Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 flopped due to franchise fatigue (also because it was an average film). One way to do that was to tap into Peter Parker’s endless roster of enemies, ones that viewers haven’t seen on the big screen before.
But sooner or later, fans will be eager to see those classic villains appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it’s clear to most fans that Norman Osborn is the best fit. The character is best known as the supervillain Green Goblin, but PS4’s Spider-Man video game has come up with an even better way to integrate the character into the MCU.
Norman is an important character in the game, but he never transforms into Green Goblin. Instead, Insomniac Games have leaned into the character’s political side, making him Mayor of New York and an cold-hearted businessman.
If Marvel want to leave Green Goblin on the sidelines for now, bringing in Norman Osborn as Mayor of New York and CEO of Oscorp would be a great way to introduce the character and open up several doors for other classic Spidey villains to enter the MCU.
Putting Oscorp in the MCU means that the company can extend its reach far further than individual Spider-Man films. It’s a global company, so it will certainly have facilities across America, considering that’s where most of the MCU is based. That means we could have Oscorp popping up in Ant-Man, Black Widow and any other film set in America.
Marvel have already been doing that with Roxxon, which has been getting a bit more spotlight in their TV series than in the films, but there’s an opportunity to naturally insert Oscorp into these films as well. Their experiments with bioengineering mean that you could make the company responsible for several of the villains in the next few Earth-based movies.
Of course, that would presumably create a rights issue with Sony, who hold the rights to all Spider-Man properties on film including Oscorp and all Spider-Man villains, but if Marvel were able to get Oscorp in other films, they could introduce them as this shadowy business who’s secretly behind creating all these horrible people with super powers threatening the lives of other heroes.
There is a theory that Walton Goggins’ character Sonny in Ant-Man and the Wasp was secretly working for Oscorp the whole time, and of course his boss was never revealed in the film. There is an opportunity for Marvel to lean into that and begin introducing the company into the MCU, followed by Norman Osborn.
The next step would be integrating the man himself. It would be easy to set him up as New York City’s new Mayor in a third Spider-Man film, and then that provides a platform for him to start becoming a bigger player in the MCU, similar to how Senator Stern debuted in Iron Man 2 and later appeared in The Winter Soldier as a HYDRA agent.
While Oscorp is conducting reckless experiments that unleash supervillains on the heroes (who are never able to prove Oscorp are behind it), Norman Osborn’s presence in American politics continues to increase. This gives Marvel the opportunity to start adapting the Dark Reign story arc, where Norman Osborn becomes President of America and ousts the Avengers, creating his own team of supervillains to rule over the country and then the world.
This could be done in a series of films spanning the next five to ten years, before culminating in an Avengers film adapting Dark Reign. Norman Osborn and the Thunderbolts would provide a different kind of threat to Thanos. It’s one worth exploring, providing a fresh twist on a classic Spider-Man villain.
We saw in The Winter Soldier that it’s possible to have a villain that’s a politician, and the while the political climate is certainly different now than it was in 2014, Norman Osborn could prove to be an even better villain than Alexander Pierce.
Robert Redford’s character is still one of the best MCU villains to this day, and while Norman Osborn might not be as powerful as Thanos, he could still be the fresh change of villain that Marvel needs once the Mad Titan is defeated. With any luck, Marvel will get an opportunity to prove that and do Norman Osborn right.
Josh is a huge a fan of Star Wars, superheroes and video games. He spends most of his time wondering who would win in a fight between Boba Fett and Star Lord.
