Aside from the return of the other two cinematic Spider-Mans to the big screen, the highlight of Spider-Man: No Way Home was the welcome return of Spidey villains past. Especially Jamie Foxx as Electro, Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, and Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin. In fact, a decent argument can be made for why Dafoe’s Goblin is one of Marvel’s greatest ever cinematic villains after his most recent turn on screen.
But how these classic foes were going to present on-screen after so many years? That was a big question mark when production began. And they went through more than a few iterations before settling on a look. Character concept artist Christian Cordella, who has worked on many a Marvel film, recently shared his early concepts for No Way Home’s three main villains. You can check them all out right here:
The original blue Electro look from Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn’t exactly have the best response. This time, Cordella gave him a design that showed Jamie Foxx’s face and also took inspiration from the comic book costume. This early rendering is slightly more comic bookish in appearance than the final film. But it shows just how much of a right track Cordella was on, even early in the process.
Another movie costume that was fairly maligned was Willem Dafoe’s original Green Goblin outfit. Labeled by many fans as “the Power Rangers costume.” It appears briefly in No Way Home. But soon, Norman Osborn is wearing regular clothes, found at a shelter. As you can see in Cordella’s art, he made sure that Norman’s civvies sported the purple and green from the comics.
Ultimately, Cordello’s Doc Ock looked pretty close to what he looked like in Spider-Man 2. But honestly, why mess with perfection? In any event, this is just a cool illustration of one of Marvel’s all-time great cinematic baddies.
Cordella has done a huge amount of work on MCU films, like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, the entire Captain America trilogy, Thor, and Iron Man 2. To check out his extensive body of work, head on over to his official website, or his Instagram.