8 Superhero Movie Concept Designs Better Than We Actually Got
2. Green Goblin (Spider-Man)
Sony
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films are a superb love-letter to the sixties Spidey stories told by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita. Tonally, they actually mirror those comics beat for bet - it's along aesthetic lines where they begin to diverge.
Although the design for Peter's final costume was pretty much picture perfect, the design for Willem Defoe's Green Goblin did draw criticism for its expressionless nature (it also looked like a suit the Green Power Ranger could've worn in a past life). Making this error even more mind boggling was the fact that an early design for the suit actually offered us the perfect Goblin - one ripped straight from the comics.
The design, recently unearthed in the run up to Spider-Man: Homecoming's release, showcases a more authentic look for the Goblin - one that retains all the cartoony expressions of the character's comics self.
It's likely that it was judged to be almost too scary, sadly. What a look though.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
