The ‘Spider-Man’ PS4 Game’s Villain Could Be Green Goblin: Insomniac Games Neither Confirms Or Denies Rumor

A recent online update has revealed Spider-Man‘s PS4 game villain to be the Green Goblin; almost. The iconic character might have been Peter Parker’s greatest nemesis when Sam Raimi put Tobey Maguire up against Willem Dafoe, but that doesn’t mean the game’s developer is going to do the same thing in the upcoming video game.

Of course, the Green Goblin has been a pain in Spider-Man’s hindquarters for much longer than the movies. The villainous relationship dates all the way back to the days when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were still building Marvel Comics as a profitable entity. Spider-Man was one of Stan Lee’s first creations, debuting in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy number 15, an issue after Green Goblin reared his hover-boarding head. They have been enemies since the beginning, and the movies have reflected that twice already.

It’s unknown if the Sony and Marvel collaboration Spider-Man: Homecoming will attempt to bring Green Goblin back once more, possibly in an Easter Egg. It’s doubtful that the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe entry will be in any way related to the PS4 video game, and that’s probably a good thing.

Video games and movies rarely ever work when they share a story. The only thing the two entities are likely to have in common is their comic book origins.

The rumor that the Spider-Man PS4 game’s villain will be Green Goblin stems from a listing on IMDb, which gave a summary of the overall plot before it was removed. The summary stated that the Green Goblin is hatching sinister plans which threaten not only Spider-Man’s life but the personal life of Peter Parker, now a married man with a daughter.

The movies have yet to make Peter Parker more than a High School student; a fact which some comic book fans find annoying as the comics haven’t had the character in school since maybe the first year. Making him older and possibly married to Mary Jane could be the fresh approach which fans crave.

iTech Post says that upon the reveal of this rumor, Insomniac Games took to Twitter and stated, “[IMDb] is like Wikipedia, anyone can add anything to it. You’ll hear the real deal from us first.”

The developer didn’t say it was false, only that they weren’t going to confirm it. The removal of the summary from that IMDb listing could only be the result of them attempting to keep the rumor from becoming fact.

As for the 2017 film, Spider-Man’s headache will be a combination of Vulture (Michael Keaton) and Shocker (Herman Schultz), with the latter possibly having his origin explained prior to becoming a full threat.

The Spider-Man PS4 game will have some high expectations attached to it as we haven’t seen a game franchise based on this character with a healthy degree of success. Only Batman has seen a renowned solo franchise on consoles so far, almost mirroring Christopher Nolan’s theatrical take.

Spider-Man has been in a lot of team-based games which went over well, such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, and the Marvel Vs Capcom series, but he’s rarely been in a solo title which went over well. This is possibly due to the aforementioned movie tie-ins or a failure to advertise them effectively. This time, Spider-Man shared the spotlight with Batman: Arkham VR and others, neither really showing the main villain. Of course, the VR title is based on the four games, so the story didn’t change.

We won’t know officially if Green Goblin will be the main villain in the upcoming Spider-Man PS4 game until Insomniac Games confirms it. All we know for now is that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko are listed as honorary writers, having created the source material, and Yuri Lowenthal will be the voice actor behind your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler.

[Featured Image by Insomniac Games]