Who has played the Green Goblin? Actors, original voices and French dub

Who has played the Green Goblin? The full table

The question sounds simple, and for most viewers the answer fits into a single name: Willem Dafoe. Yet the Green Goblin's mask has passed through several hands on screen, and above all between two characters: Norman Osborn, the father, and Harry Osborn, the son, who takes up his father's arsenal. Depending on the film, it is not always Norman who wears the suit. To find out who the character is in the comics, his history and his motives, our article Green Goblin: the web-slinger's sworn enemy revealed paints the full portrait. Here, we focus on one question only: who played him, and who lent him their voice.

This table covers only live action and the stage. The voices from the cartoons, the Spider-Verse films and the video games are detailed further down, as are the French dub voices. For the full cast of each film, from Mary Jane to Aunt May, our page every Spider-Man film cast brings the casts together film by film.

Willem Dafoe, Sam Raimi's Green Goblin

It is in the 2002 film, the first instalment of Sam Raimi's trilogy, that Willem Dafoe becomes Norman Osborn, the Oscorp industrialist who turns into the Green Goblin. The role could have gone to someone else: several sources say the production considered Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich and Jason Isaacs. Choosing Dafoe gave the film a two-faced villain, able to shift from an icy businessman to a cackling creature within the same scene.

The Goblin's face has a story of its own. The first mask designed for the film was a highly expressive animatronic one, built by the Amalgamated Dynamics workshop. Judged too complex and too cumbersome to wear across a whole shoot, it was dropped in favour of the helmet seen on screen. Willem Dafoe is said to have insisted on wearing the armour himself for most of the film rather than handing over to a double: he felt a stuntman would not capture the character's body language. In 2003, he was nominated at the MTV Movie Awards, in the 'Best Villain' category, for the role. To understand why the duel between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker remains so striking, read why the Green Goblin is Peter Parker's worst nightmare.

Premium Spider-Man Costume - The Green Goblin

A full green bodysuit with an armour pattern, purple touches at the collar and chest, hands and feet included, to become the Green Goblin.

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To build the character, you will find other bodysuits in our sections for men's fancy dress and Spider-Man costumes.

Spider-Man 2 and 3: a ghost and a new Goblin

Norman Osborn dies at the end of the 2002 film. Willem Dafoe nevertheless appears in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and in Spider-Man 3 (2007), but only as hallucinations that haunt Harry, Norman's son. In the second film, Harry sees his father's image in a mirror, demanding vengeance. Dafoe himself is said to have suggested this ghostly return to Sam Raimi, in the manner of Hamlet's father. Norman Osborn therefore does not come back to fight the hero in these two films: he haunts Harry.

James Franco plays Harry Osborn, Norman's son and Peter's best friend, in all three Sam Raimi films. In the third, Harry takes up his father's technology to face Peter: this time he is the one wearing the mask. The original-version credits list him as 'New Goblin', and the French Wikipedia calls him 'le nouveau Bouffon vert'. To follow the character's whole arc, from friend to rival, our feature Harry Osborn: friend, rival or enemy? looks back at his screen versions.

Spider-Man Figurine - Green Goblin Pumpkin Bomb

The pumpkin bomb, the Green Goblin's signature weapon: a coppery orange sphere with cross-hatched plates and a green porthole, to display beside a mask or a figurine of the character.

View the product — €139.90

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Chris Cooper or Dane DeHaan?

It is a common mix-up. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), released in France as The Amazing Spider-Man : Le Destin d'un héros, Chris Cooper does indeed play Norman Osborn, but he is not the one who becomes the Green Goblin. The suit goes to his son Harry, played by Dane DeHaan. You still sometimes read that Chris Cooper was the Green Goblin of this film: that is wrong, his Norman Osborn is a dying man who never wears the mask.

This Goblin sits at the heart of the film's tragedy: Harry, now the Green Goblin, takes Gwen Stacy into a clock tower, and Peter cannot stop her fall. The scene echoes Gwen's death in the 1973 comic, which we recount in the death of Gwen Stacy, the arc that changed everything. The planned sequels were then dropped, which explains why this Goblin never got a second film: we look back at that project in why Amazing Spider-Man 3 never happened. The films themselves can be found in our DVD and Blu-ray range.

No Way Home: the return of Willem Dafoe

In 2021, Willem Dafoe took up Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin again in No Way Home. He plays the version from Sam Raimi's universe, pulled into the MCU by the multiverse. The actor had set one condition for his return: shooting the action scenes himself, rather than settling for a cameo or a few close-ups. He is digitally de-aged to resemble the Norman Osborn of 2002.

The character's silhouette changes too. The Goblin soon drops his 2002 helmet and ends the film in a tattered purple hood over his armour, a look closer to the comics. He is the one who fatally wounds May Parker; at the end of the film, he is given a cure that restores Norman Osborn's sanity. That tragedy weighs on the whole final act, which we analyse in Peter's impossible choice in No Way Home.

This armoured, purple-hooded Goblin is an easy character to recognise at a fancy dress party. Our guide to Spider-Man villain cosplay explains how to put it together, and you will find other models in our Spider-Man masks collection. To place No Way Home in the timeline, see the list of MCU films in order.

Is the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

No. The Green Goblin does not appear in Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and released in France on 29 July 2026. The film gives Norman Osborn no role and never mentions either Norman or Oscorp. The pre-release rumours of a Harry Osborn or a new Goblin did not pan out.

The film's link with the Goblin stays indirect: Aunt May, killed by the Goblin in No Way Home, the hero's previous MCU film, reappears as a memory in Peter's mind. For a look back at the film's announcement, from its release date to its cast, read Brand New Day, release date and cast, and find the film's merchandise in our Brand New Day collection.

On Broadway: Patrick Page then Robert Cuccioli

The Green Goblin has sung, too. In the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, staged on Broadway, Patrick Page created the dual role of Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin. He gave his final performance on 5 August 2012. Robert Cuccioli took over from 7 August 2012; he was known for his dual role as Jekyll and Hyde, which had earned him a Tony Awards nomination. An actor well used to two-faced characters, which suits Norman Osborn nicely.

On the hero's side, it was Reeve Carney who played Peter Parker on stage. The show's turbulent history is told in full in Turn Off the Dark, the Broadway musical, and the hero's big-screen performers are gathered in who has played Spider-Man on screen.

The Green Goblin's voices in the cartoons

Outside the films, it is mainly in animation that the Green Goblin has appeared on screen, and nearly every series has given him a different voice. They do not all tell the same story either: in Spider-Man Unlimited (1999), the Green Goblin is a hero from Counter-Earth, not Norman Osborn. Here are the main confirmed original voices.

Three cases need a word of detail. In The Spectacular Spider-Man, two actors share the character: Alan Rachins voices Norman Osborn and Steve Blum lends the Goblin his disguised voice, while James Arnold Taylor voices Harry. In the series Marvel's Spider-Man (2017), Josh Keaton voices Norman Osborn, who ends up becoming the 'Dark Goblin', and Harry, voiced by Max Mittelman, fights crime as the Hobgoblin. Finally, in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, streaming on Disney+ from 29 January 2025, Colman Domingo voices Norman Osborn, the Oscorp boss and Peter's mentor, and Zeno Robinson voices Harry; Norman does not become the Green Goblin there in series 1.

Spider-Man Toy Figure - The Green Goblin

The comics version of the Green Goblin, purple tunic, silver shoulder pads and pumpkin bomb in hand: a figure for young fans of the villain, presented in its box marked 6+.

View the product — €29.90

For younger fans, the Disney Junior version is covered in the villains of Spidey and His Amazing Friends, and little fans will find plenty to play with in our Spider-Man toys.

Spider-Verse and video games: who voices the Goblin?

In Into the Spider-Verse (2018), the Green Goblin is voiced by Jorma Taccone, a member of the comedy trio The Lonely Island. Jorma Taccone returns in Across the Spider-Verse (2023), but there he voices the Vulture, not the Goblin. Nothing so far suggests the Goblin will have a role in Beyond the Spider-Verse, due out in France on 23 June 2027.

In Insomniac's PlayStation games, Norman Osborn does not become the Green Goblin in any instalment released so far. At the end of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, he merely asks on the phone for the 'G-Serum' to be prepared, a direct nod to the Goblin. The first instalment, released in 2018, is covered in Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4. The web-slinger's main games are presented on our page Spider-Man video games, and controllers get dressed up with our PS5 covers.

The French voices of the Green Goblin

In the French version, Willem Dafoe kept the same voice from start to finish: Éric Herson-Macarel voices him in all three Sam Raimi films (2002, 2004 and 2007) and in No Way Home (2021). For French audiences, the laugh of the Green Goblin in the live-action films is therefore Éric Herson-Macarel's. James Franco, as Harry Osborn, is voiced by Philippe Valmont in the first and the third film. In animation, the French version of Into the Spider-Verse (2018) held a surprise: it is footballer Olivier Giroud who voices the Green Goblin, while his France team-mate Presnel Kimpembe lends his voice to Scorpion.

The hero's French voices, from Tobey Maguire's to Tom Holland's, are presented in who voices Spider-Man in French.

What you often read about the Green Goblin, and what is wrong

The villain has had many performers, but Willem Dafoe played him nineteen years apart, from 2002 to 2021. To place the Goblin among the web-slinger's other foes, our page Spider-Man's enemies presents his major villains, and the complete universe of characters widens the gallery to his allies. On the film side, our guide to the films puts them in order.

Key takeaways