| “ | I protected you in high school. Now I'm gonna kick your little ass. | „ |
| ~ Harry's threat to Peter whilst fighting in his manor – his most famous quote. |
| “ | None of that matters, Peter. You're my friend. | „ |
| ~ Harry making amends with Peter seconds before his death. |
Harold Theopolis "Harry" Osborn, also known as the New Goblin, is the tritagonist of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy.
He is the late son of the late Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, and the late best friend of Peter Parker. When he falsely assumed that Spider-Man was his father's killer (not knowing that it was the Green Goblin's own undoing that caused it), he became vengeful towards Spider-Man, thus making him tragically fell into villainy as a result. However, once he knew the full truth about his father's death, he later reconciled with Spider-Man again.
He is portrayed by James Franco, who would later portray Will Rodman in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Oscar Diggs in Oz the Great and Powerful, and himself in This Is The End. In the first two game adaptations, he was voiced by Josh Keaton.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Not much is known about Harry's early years. His mother died when he was a child, leaving him to be looked after by his father, Norman, who had little time for him. He flunked many private schools which Norman paid for, and he wished to downplay his wealth and privilege to his classmates. Harry also became best friends with Peter Parker.
Spider-Man (2002)[]
After finishing high school, Harry moves into an apartment in the city with Peter. He also starts a relationship with Mary Jane after she breaks up with Flash Thomson, despite the fact that Peter is in love with her.
Harry and Mary Jane attend the World Unity Festival, and Harry tries to kiss her, but Mary Jane shies away. The festival is interrupted by the Green Goblin's destructive attack. During the attack, Harry tries to come to Mary Jane's aid after she ends up on a crumbling balcony, only to be hit on the head by debris and fall unconscious; nonetheless, he survives.
Later in the movie, Harry hosts Thanksgiving dinner at his and Peter's apartment, and he introduces Mary Jane to Norman, who appears less-than-impressed with his son's girlfriend. Moments later, Peter arrives (fresh off a battle with the Green Goblin), and everyone sits down for dinner, only for Norman to abruptly leave after seeing Peter's cut (from their earlier battle) and piecing everything together. Harry confronts his father, who makes loud, rude remarks about Mary Jane before leaving. Harry comes back inside the apartment, where Mary Jane confronts him about him not sticking up for her, prompting an angry reply from Harry as Mary Jane leaves.
After Peter's Aunt May, is attacked by the Green Goblin, Harry comes to the hospital to visit May, only to find Peter and Mary Jane holding hands, much to his dismay. He visits his father at his penthouse, and Norman apologizes to Harry for his past treatment of him and promises he's going to make everything right. Father and son then hug.
At the end of the movie, Harry walks in on Spider-Man placing his father's lifeless body on a couch. He angrily demands what Spider-Man did to Norman before grabbing a gun from a nearby drawer and aiming at Spider-Man, only to find him gone. After Norman's funeral, Harry is comforted by Peter, who tells him he knows what it's like to lose a father, but Harry replies that his father was stolen from him and vows to make Spider-Man pay for Norman's death.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)[]
Two years after the first movie, Harry is now CEO of OsCorp and head of Special Projects. He attends Peter's surprise birthday party at the Parker household, and has a brief but tense talk with Peter about Spider-Man, whom he still believes to be responsible for the death of his father.
Harry arranges for Peter to meet Octavius, and he later attends a demonstration of Octavius' fusion device, which goes awry. As the fusion device spins out of control, Harry shouts for Octavius to shut down the device, unaware he's about to be smashed by a piece of furniture. Though Spider-Man saves him, Harry is ungrateful for the rescue. After the device is shut down, Harry laments that he's ruined and remarks that Spider-Man is all he has left.
At a party for astronaut John Jameson, Harry gets drunk at the bar, again expresses regret over funding Octavius' disastrous research, and determines to obsess over Spider-Man. He later gets into a heated confrontation with Peter, whom he accuses of stealing Mary Jane, as well as Norman's love, from him, and even slaps his best friend repeatedly across the face as he mockingly calls him "brother."
Much later in the movie, Harry is approached by Octavius, now Doctor Octopus, who asks him for more tritium to use to create a better, bigger fusion device. Initially, Harry refuses and denounces him as a "hack," but when Doc Ock threatens him, he proposes a deal: If Doc Ock brings Spider-Man to him, he'll give the tritium.
Later, after Doc Ock brings Spider-Man to him, Harry draws a knife and prepares to kill Spider-Man to avenge his father. He pulls off Spider-Man's mask, revealing his true identity as Peter Parker, much to his own horror and shock. Peter displays his powers to Harry and asks him where Mary Jane is, and Harry says that all Octavius wanted was the tritium, causing Peter to realize Doc Ock's plans. Harry remains convinced that Peter, as Spider-Man, murdered his father, and Peter doesn't clarify that Norman was responsible for his own death, instead telling Harry that Mary Jane needs to be saved.
At the end of the film, Harry is sitting alone in the Osborn penthouse when he starts hearing the Green Goblin's laughter and a door opened. He then hears his father's voice and turns to see a vision of Norman in the mirror. When Norman reminds his son of his vow to make Spider-Man pay for his supposed murder, Harry replies that Peter is his best friend, to which Norman responds "I'm your father." Norman then angrily insists that Harry avenge him, prompting Harry to throw the knife at the mirror, shattering it and revealing the entrance to Norman's secret lair, where he finds Norman's Goblin weapons and equipment, and the performance enhancing serum.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)[]
He is first seen at a performance of Mary Jane's play, where he watches Peter with a sinister smile. After the play, Peter spots him and tries to tell him that he didn't kill Norman, only for Harry to ignore him and drive off. Harry later exposes himself to the performance enhancing formula and adopts the mantle of the New Goblin. Harry's Goblin suit attire differed from the original suit in that it was black as well as green, and had a different, less threatening but more practical face mask, a long, snowboard-like glider-called the Skystick, and some different weapons.
The New Goblin intercepts Peter as he's on his way to meet Mary Jane, and makes an attempt to kill him despite Peter's protests that he didn't murder Norman, but he refused to believe him. The two engage in a fight above and across Downtown. Harry pursues Peter into an alley, only to end up unconscious after hitting his head. Peter gets Harry to a hospital, and is informed that Harry has suffered memory loss; indeed, Harry forgets about the circumstances of his father's death as well as Peter's superhero identity. Harry and Peter reconcile, although Harry is amazed at his superhuman reflexes (granted to him by the Goblin formula) as well as his accelerated healing as to how he has healed without even a small scar.
After a get-together with Mary Jane, Harry experiences another vision of his dead father, who reminds him of his vow to kill Spider-Man; this restores Harry's memories. As the New Goblin, Harry attacks Mary Jane at her apartment, and forces her to break up with Peter as a tactic to attack Spider-Man's heart, as his vision of Norman suggested. After Mary Jane complies, Harry meets with Peter and confesses that he's the other man that Mary Jane is seeing, hurting Peter, who leaves.
Next, Harry is confronted at his penthouse by Peter wearing the Venom symbiote, and he taunts Peter about Mary Jane's kisses, leading to a fight between the two. The battle moves into Harry's secret lair, where Peter bests Harry and cruelly tells him that his father was ashamed of him. He still refused to believe him still accusing him of murdering his father. Harry attempts to attack Peter, who knocks him back and turns to leave. Harry regains consciousness and tosses a pumpkin bomb at Peter, who throws it back at him. The bomb explodes, and Harry is caught in the blast.
Near the end, when Peter comes to the penthouse and asks Harry for help against Venom, who's kidnapped Mary Jane, Harry reveals his face, the side of which has been horribly scarred by the bomb. Harry tells Peter that he doesn't deserve his help and orders him to leave. He then goes into his lair, where Bernard, the Osborns' butler, reveals that Norman was impaled by his own glider and encourages Harry to help his friends.
Harry dons his New Goblin outfit and arrives in time to save Spider-Man from Venom and Sandman. After Harry defeats Sandman, he helps Spider-Man contend with Venom. When Venom hurls Harry's glider at Spider-Man, Harry shields Spider-Man and ends up impaled. Harry, wounded, falls several stories through the half-finished building, where he is found by Mary Jane, whom he asks to stay with him. After Venom is defeated and Sandman leaves, Spider-Man finds Harry, and the two friends reconcile their past differences before Harry dies, much to Peter and Mary Jane's grief.
A funeral is held for Harry, with Peter, Mary Jane, Aunt May, and many others in attendance.
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
Despite not coming back from Doctor Strange’s botched spell moments before his death in Earth-96283, Harry is mentioned a couple of times throughout the film. When his father arrives in Earth-199999, due to Doctor Strange's spell, one of the first things he does is seek Harry, only to find that he doesn't exist, their penthouse belongs to another person, and Oscorp doesn't exist. Norman later mentions this to MCU's Peter and May after the latter allows him to stay at the F.E.A.S.T. building.
Harry is later mentioned when Ned Leeds asked Harry's Peter if he had a best friend, only for Peter to sadly reply that he did and explain how Harry died in his arms after he sacrificed his life to save Peter from Venom despite trying to kill him some time ago, revealing how heartbroken and devastated he was over Harry's self-sacrifice and leading Ned to reaffirm his loyalty to his Peter. This implies that Peter never forgot about Harry and still considered him his best friend despite all the problems they had. Peter also hoped that by curing Norman of the formula that transformed him into the Green Goblin and averting his death, Harry's self-sacrifice may also be averted and he can return to life. This wish is one of the very reasons why Peter stops his MCU counterpart from killing Norman in revenge for Norman killing his Aunt May while under the Green Goblin's control, knowing how Harry would feel if his Spider-Man really did kill his father and not wanting a worsened version of events that jeopardized their friendship and ultimately led to his transformation into the New Goblin and self-sacrifice.
New Timeline[]
His father is later cured by MCU Peter, allowing him to return to his home universe safely without being destined to die while fighting his Spider-Man. This creates a branched timeline/universe in which Harry may survive due to no motivation to go after his Spider-Man. This also meant that Harry will probably team up with his Peter to become heroes.
Quotes[]
| “ | Looks like just in the nick of time. | „ |
| ~ Harry's redeeming phrase. |
| “ | Go, buddy! | „ |
| ~ New Goblin's Battle cry. |
Gallery[]
New Goblin[]
Trivia[]
- Ironically, Harry dies the exact same way as his father, Norman did, only he dies saving Spider-Man while his father dies trying to kill him.
- After completion of the 2002 Spider-Man video game tie-in, the player is able to play the campaign as Harry Osborn who takes on the mantle of the Green Goblin to investigate Oscorp and also fight an "alternate goblin".
- Harry with his New Goblin Suit and scarred face made a cameo appearance in This Is the End film as a promotional stand for Spider-Man 3 film that kept by James Franco in his basement.
- The scene where Spider-Man throws an exploding pumpkin back at Harry, exploding in Harry's face, recalls a similar scene in Spider-Man (2002). Green Goblin throws a pumpkin at Spider-Man, blowing off half of his Spider-Man mask.
- In the comics, Harry Osborn dies because the Goblin formula he ingested was fatally unstable, and was slowly poisoning him. Sam Raimi changed Harry's death to parallel his father's death in Spider-Man (2002). However, in Harry's final scenes, his pale look could be a sign of the Goblin formula's effects.
- During breaks in filming, James Franco read works by William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer and John Milton.
- Harry's lab contains his father's Green Goblin mask, as well as a gold "Hobgoblin" mask from the comics.
- According to James Franco, they had to go back and do some re-shoots just prior to the release, because test audiences felt that there was not enough action in the film.
- James Franco's hair was dyed brown to give him some resemblance to Willem Dafoe, his screen father. This decision was only made after filming had begun. Indeed, in the scene where Harry visits Aunt May in hospital, you can see that Franco's hair is his usual black.
- When James Franco joked about Tobey Maguire's 'frog-like' features on set, the latter was reportedly genuinely upset by Franco's comments. This created friction between the two actors, which led to the existing rivalry between them now - a rivalry that was admitted to by Maguire in interviews since the Spider-Man franchise.
- Although they play high school seniors, Tobey Maguire was 26, James Franco was 23 and Kirsten Dunst was 20 at the time of filming.
- In the first film Harry Osborn and Peter Parker moved into a spacious apartment paid for by Norman Osborn, who was characterized as wealthy. But for this movie, with Peter living on his own, Tobey Maguire gave suggestions to Sam Raimi on what Peter's apartment should look like, based his own observations of friends who lived in cramped and rundown New York apartments.
- According to the novelization:
- Harry uses a knife to kill Spider-Man, because it isn't traceable like a gun. It belonged to his father. When he unmasks Spider-Man, Harry wondered if Doctor Octopus was trying to fool him by bringing Peter instead. He also hopes that if Doc Ock succeeds with his experiment, the tritium explosion will destroy the half of the city that he's in.
- Mary-Jane is shocked Harry would want to kill Spider-Man.
- Before being cast as Harry Osborn, James Franco originally auditioned for the role of Spider-Man. He was cast in the role of Harry Osborn after Raimi's wife Gillian Greene saw his audition and thought he would be perfect for the role.
- Sam Raimi initially wanted to make Harry become the Hobgoblin, but was dissuaded by Sony.
- Yet in "Marvel Spider-Man the Series", Harry Osborn did become the heroic version of the Hobgoblin, after he didn't trust Spider-Man at first.
- In Spider-Man No Way Home if Harry was brought back to life to MCU by Doctor Strange, he would have his chance to redeem himself by battling the Green Goblin while curing his father in order to end this insanity, while he would have now become the "American Son" (just like in the comics where Harry becomes a heroic version), as Iron Patriot armors are the only ones available in this universe.
- Most fans refer him as the "Black Goblin" due to new modern comics in Spider-Man: Life Story Vol 1 2, where Harry takes the mantle, while having a dark/black outfit.
External Links[]
- Harry Osborn on the Villains Wiki
- Harry Osborn on the Marvel Wiki
- Harry Osborn on the Spider-Man Trilogy Wiki
- Harry Osborn on the Spider-Man Films Wiki
- Harry Osborn on the Marvel Movies Wiki
- Harry Osborn on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
