Spider-Man: No Way Home star Jacob Batalon fuels Hobgoblin hopes by jokingly sharing a new picture. Marvel Studios' third and final installment in Jon Watts’ Homecoming trilogy was released in theaters last year and has since earned over $1.9 billion worldwide. In addition to uniting Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland’s Spider-Men (along with villains from Sony’s past), the multiversal romp develops Peter Parker, MJ (Zendaya), and Ned Leeds (Batalon) in surprising ways.
In No Way Home, Peter’s “guy in the chair,” Ned, gets his hands on Doctor Strange’s Sling Ring. Able to harness its power surprisingly well, he then uses it to open portals and officially introduce the Spider-Man variants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. During No Way Home’s three-Spider-Man science lab scene, Maguire’s Peter tells Ned about how his best friend, Harry Osborn, died after trying to murder him. The blockbuster then makes a nod to Ned's transformation into Hobgoblin in the Marvel comics when Ned promises Holland's Peter he’ll never turn into a supervillain and try to kill him. While the MCU’s Ned has greatly diverged from his comic book counterpart, many still suspect that Batalon’s character will wield Jack O’Lantern bombs in a future film.
Batalon recently took to Instagram to share an image of himself teasing his MCU character’s potential future as the Hobgoblin. The photo sees the actor holding an action figure based on the Hobgoblin from Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Naturally, the image has fuelled rumors of Ned Leeds' eventual villainous turn. Check out a screenshot of his story below:
Near the end of No Way Home, Peter realizes the only way to contain Strange’s spell is to erase Peter Parker from everyone’s memory. He says goodbye to MJ and Ned before promising them he’ll refresh their memories later. However, when Peter finds the pair happy without him, he changes his mind. Although No Way Home signals MJ may remember Peter somewhat, the web-slinger's relationship with Ned will likely remain nonexistent for the foreseeable future. This could potentially open up the possibility that Ned, without his loyal best friend to guide him, could potentially be more vulnerable to a darker turn — leading to his Hobgoblin path.
In the comics, Ned is a reporter at the Daily Bugle who is manipulated into donning the Hobgoblin costume by another, more menacing iteration of the villain. If a prospective Spider-Man 4 decides to see Ned break bad, it would be all the more heartbreaking for Peter, as he’d be the only one aware of their prior relationship. Interestingly, producer Amy Pascal has said that Sony and Marvel Studios are actively developing their next Spider-Man trilogy. On top of that, Sony chairman Tom Rothman hopes to have the No Way Home cast back for Spider-Man 4, including Batalon. With more films likely after Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ned's fall from grace is still very possible.
Source: Jacob Batalon/Instagram
