Green Goblin Gets a Radical Ghost Rider Makeover in Unused Across the Spider-Verse Art

August 1, 2023

Green Goblin gets a radical Ghost Rider makeover in a character design created by Kris Anka for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Anka, the lead character designer for 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, showed off some unused Green Goblin variants designed for the film on his Twitter account. Along with the Ghost Rider Green Goblin, Anka’s other designs include a Mike Mignola-inspired variant, a skiing Green Goblin, and more.

Some #GreenGoblin

We wanted some otherworldly goblins for a few sequences, I think you can spot the Mignola-World puppet goblin a few times waiting for the Go Hoke Machine#AcrossTheSpiderVerse pic.twitter.com/JxETDuSsDV
— kris anka (@kristaferanka) July 31, 2023

Anka’s Across the Spider-Verse character design isn’t the first time a Ghost Rider Green Goblin has appeared in Marvel’s continuity. The Jason Aaron-written Avengers series, which began in 2018 and recently concluded in 2023, introduced a character called Ghost Goblin, who is a Norman Osborn variant that bonded with the Spirit of Vengeance and then joined the Multiversal Masters of Evil.

Green Goblin: A deadly Spider-Verse villain

Green Goblin doesn’t have an obvious appearance in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; however, the character is one of several antagonists in the first film in the franchise, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Whether or not Norman will return for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is not clear at this time, but audiences will have to wait longer than they initially expected to find out, as the film was recently removed from Sony’s calendar. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was supposed to come out on March 29, 2024, but it no longer has a release date due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strikes.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson; written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham; and features voice acting by Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Jake Johnson, Jason Swartzman, Luna Lauren Vélez, Issa Rae, and Karan Soni. The movie will be available to watch on 4K, Blu-ray, digital, and DVD on Sept. 5, 2023.