What if Chris Cooper’s Norman Osborn really is dead?

What if Norman Osborn really is dead?

So, we all know that Norman Osborn has a penchant for coming back to life in the comic books, after all he is Spider-Man’s titular villain. He’s Batman’s Joker, Superman’s Lex Luther or Thor’s Loki, you can’t keep him dead for long because he’s the Spider-Man villain.

But like I said that’s in the comics. The films seem to have taken a bizarre new direction with the Green Goblin character. Not only was Norman Osborn in Amazing Spider-Man 2 for one short but sweet scene, he was later go on to die, give his company to his son Harry Osborn and then to cap it all off at the end of the film it is Harry and not Norman that brings about the death of Gwen Stacy, which was one of Norman’s defining moments in the comic books.

Naturally everyone sat there throughout the film not worried at all that Norman was dead because naturally everyone has just assumed that Norman Osborn will be back, It’s Norman Osborn for crying out loud. I even wrote an article saying that he obviously fakes his death. However in another bizarre twist it’s Harry, and not Norman who is working with the ‘Man in the Shadows’ to build the Sinister Six.

So, what if, in a massive statement of intent, Marc Webb and Spider-Man producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach have made the decision to truly kill off Norman Osborn from their film franchise? What if Harry Osborn is the Green Goblin stand-in and will continue to be so for as long as the franchise runs? What if we won’t see Chris Cooper in Amazing Spider-Man 3?

But then again there’s that whole ‘head in a box’ issue that has arisen, this alongside the absence of the Venom symbiote was one of the glaring omissions from the film. Where was the scene of the ‘Man in the Shadows’ walking up to what appeared to be Norman Osborn’s head in a box (pictured below). And does its absence mean that Norman isn’t coming back, or that he’s just not coming back right away?

A leaked photo from the reported end-credit scene featuring Norman Osborn’s head in a box

Sure Chris Cooper has hinted that this was only an ‘introduction’ to his character, but maybe that’s all we’ll ever get, a small glimpse at an old, weak and frail Norman Osborn who had turned green and had monstrous hands not only passing over the reigns to the company, but also the reigns to the character of the Green Goblin?

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