Spider-Man: No Way Home star Jacob Batalon recently teased audiences on social media with a nod to his character's transformation into the Hobgoblin in the comics.
Batalon shared an image of himself in a store, holding an action figure based on the Hobgoblin as the character appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Batalon can be seen shrugging, offering a cheeky acknowledgment of his character's potential future, should the Marvel Cinematic Universe films adhere closely to Leeds' comic book storyline.
Spider-Man: No Way Home itself contained a brief and subtle nod to the character's comic book history in a comedic moment in which Ned promises to never attack Peter, after hearing a Spider-Man variant's story-- that of Tobey Maguire's iteration of the character. Leeds' story thus far has deviated heavily from his comic book counterpart, with No Way Home going so far as to show him possessing a talent for magic, acknowledged by Doctor Strange.
Marvel introduced Leeds in Amazing Spider-Man #18 (written by Stan Lee with artwork by Steve Ditko and lettering by Sam Rosen) in 1964. He was a reporter working at the Daily Bugle and was mainly depicted as a romantic interest for Bugle secretary Betty Brant, one of Peter Parker's exes. He was also later revealed to be the Hobgoblin, though Parker, as Spider-Man, along with Brant, would later confirm that Leeds had been brainwashed and manipulated into donning the costume by one of the true Hobgoblins, Jason Macendale.
Marvel Studios' No Way Home was a monumental success, both critically and financially. Upon release, the film quickly broke numerous post-pandemic records and ultimately earned a whopping $1.9 billion worldwide. No Way Home, which brought three separate film versions of Spider-Man together, including that of Maguire, Andrew Garfield and the MCU's Tom Holland, was so successful that the MCU film is currently scheduled to be re-released into theaters later this year with even more content attached.
When it comes to the future of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony producer Amy Pascal previously assured audiences, "This is not the last movie that we are going to make with Marvel – [this is not] the last Spider-Man movie. We are getting ready to make the next Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland and Marvel, it just isn't part of… we're thinking of this as three films, and now we're going to go onto the next three." Marvel Studios president and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige has not provided any comment on plans for Spider-Man.
Spider-Man: No Way Home - The More Fun Stuff Version is scheduled to hit theaters on Friday, Sept. 2 in North America. More countries will be announced in the near future.
Source: Instagram
