Spider-Man: Every Green Goblin actor ranked from worst to best

Spider-Man’s greatest nemesis has some of the greatest portrayals on the big screen. But which actor has given us the best interpretation of the Green Goblin yet?

Ever since the Green Goblin was introduced to comic book readers in 1964, he has terrorized Spider-Man in the most horrific ways possible. He’s the man responsible for putting Flash into a coma, kidnapping Peter Parker’s daughter, and for orchestrating Gwen Stacy’s death. There are no lengths to which the Green Goblin won’t go if it means torturing Peter Parker and the people closest to him. That’s why he’s Spider-Man’s greatest nemesis above the likes of other iconic characters like Doctor Octopus and Venom.

With a villain as popular as the Green Goblin, it’s impossible for him not to appear in a live-action project featuring the wall-crawler. In fact, he’s the only character alongside Peter Parker, Aunt May, and Doctor Connors to have appeared in all major Spider-Man franchises on the big screen.

Willem Dafoe gave life to the character both in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man franchise and Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home. Dane DeHaan interpreted a deranged version of Harry Osborn who would later become the Green Goblin and kill Gwen Stacy in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. James Franco’s character followed in his father’s footsteps and became the New Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, and the supervillain even appeared in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse before Peter Parker’s death (even though he didn’t have any dialogue).

With three major interpretations of the character (excluding his appearance in the Spider-Verse franchise), it’s time we look back at every actor who portrayed the role and rank them from good to straight-up iconic.