After all the villains of Spider-Man: No Way Home are cured and returned to their own universes, the movie sets up a couple of new baddies for the future. The multiversal outline of Kraven the Hunter appears as Doctor Strange tries to seal up the cracks in the sky. In the mid-credits scene, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock leaves behind a bit of Venom symbiote on his way back to the Sony-verse. The most obvious villain setup in No Way Home is Ned Leeds’ prophesized transformation into the Hobgoblin.
Jacob Batalon’s Ned was introduced as the best friend of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker back in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Across the trilogy, he evolved from Spidey’s “guy in the chair” to a superpowered ally opening and closing mystical portals to redirect villains in the final battle of No Way Home. But instead of turning Ned into Spidey’s sidekick, the threequel has set him up to become the webslinger’s next nemesis. Marvel fans are eager to see Holland take on Venom, Kraven, Black Cat, and countless other iconic villains, but Ned is arguably the perfect bad guy for Spider-Man 4.
In the comics, Ned eventually became a villain called the Hobgoblin. Traditionally, Ned’s only powers in the Hobgoblin guise are a bunch of goblin-themed weapons, but the MCU has introduced the notion that he has “Doctor Strange magic,” so his Hobgoblin could present a supernatural menace. No Way Home was hilariously on-the-nose in foreshadowing Ned’s future as the Hobgoblin. He asks Tobey Maguire’s Spidey if he has a best friend. After Maguire explains his tragic history with Harry Osborn and Andrew Garfield nods to confirm that the same thing happened to him, Ned goes over to Holland and assures him, “I won’t turn into a supervillain and try to kill you.” There’s no way this is just a throwaway line. Everything means something in Kevin Feige’s super-verse.
End Of The Line
The ending of No Way Home has established a unique conflict for Holland’s Spidey going forward. In order to reverse his cosmic missteps and send the multiversal visitors back where they came from, Peter allows Strange to convince the entire world that he doesn’t exist. When he goes back to the coffee shop where MJ works, Peter is a perfect stranger to both her and Ned. Instead of trying to remind them who he is like he promised he would, Peter allows them to live happy, normal lives – at least for now – and continues his Spidey crusade alone to keep them out of harm’s way. Ned might have promised Peter that he wouldn’t turn into a supervillain and try to kill him, but that was when he knew who Peter was. His friendship with Peter has been completely erased. Now, Ned is just another New Yorker with mixed emotions about the masked vigilante who’s been swinging around and fighting the city’s crime.
Ned has been eager to acquire his own superpowers from the beginning. When he found out how Peter got his powers in Homecoming, he instantly asked to be bitten by the same radioactive spider. Now, he has “Doctor Strange magic.” Since he was the third Hobgoblin in the comics and the MCU has no “original” Hobgoblin for him to replace, Ned will need a new origin story on the big screen. The brainwashed Ned might see footage of Spidey’s showdown with the Green Goblin at the Statue of Liberty, forgetting that he was there. He might be misled by the Daily Bugle’s conspiracy theories, sympathize with the Goblin, and use his newfound magical abilities to become a Goblin-inspired supervillain determined to finish what the original Gobbie started and vanquish Spider-Man once and for all.
Shades Of Stucky
If the MCU follows up on this teaser and Ned does become the Hobgoblin, then his dynamic with Peter will morph into the same dynamic shared by Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes from Captain America: The Winter Soldier onwards. The only difference is that Peter knows Ned is still alive. Much like Bucky, Ned has been brainwashed to forget about his superhuman best friend and their upcoming hero/villain relationship will revolve around the hero trying to remind the brainwashed villain that they’re lifelong pals.
No matter how far gone the Winter Soldier seemed and how ruthlessly he came after Cap, Steve never gave up on his best friend. Steve’s catchphrase, repeated from something Bucky told him after his parents died, sums it up perfectly: “I’m with you to the end of the line.” Inspired by Aunt May’s belief that nobody is beyond a second chance, Peter will go into battle with Ned’s Hobgoblin with this same end-of-the-line mentality. Following the same storyline could feel like Marvel is repeating itself, but Peter and Ned are very different characters than Steve and Bucky, with a very different kind of friendship.