The Spider-Man Homecoming trilogy has built Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) into one of the best characters in the Spiderverse. As the best friend to his Peter Parker (Tom Holland), he’s essentially Peter’s right-hand man, or his guy in the chair helping him along the way. He’s supportive, he’s caring, he’s funny, and he’s everything you’d want in a best friend. We’re not convinced, though, that things will stay that way.
You see, if we go back to the comics, which is where everything from the multiverse comes from in one way or another, Ned Leeds actually becomes Hobgoblin – a villain. There are always creative liberties, though, when it comes to translating the comics to the big screen, so we’re not sure what might happen. The Ned in the Homecoming trilogy is actually pretty dissimilar to the Ned in the comics. He’s a little bit more like Miles Morales’s friend Ganke Lee with playing the guy in the chair and helping out.
Where this Ned feels more like comic-book Ned, though, is with his use of magic. In the comics, Ned plays apprentice to a magic user, which ends with him getting brainwashed and turned into Hobgoblin. Since we haven’t seen this happen in the Spider-Man movies yet, we think it could still happen in the future. In fact, Spider-Man: No Way Home drops a few clues that could imply that Hobgoblin is coming. There’s a Spider-Man 4 on the way at some point, so . . . here’s what we think.
Everett Collection / Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Ned Seems to Have Magic
At the beginning of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ned tells Dr. Strange that his grandmother always thought he had magic. It seems like a throwaway comment until later on, when he’s able to open a portal using Strange’s Sling Ring. And he doesn’t just open one portal, he opens multiple. In the big battle scene, when Ned opens a portal that brings Strange back from another dimension, the wizard even comments on Ned’s magical powers. The Ned from the comics doesn’t quite have abilities like this, but he does team up with Baron Mordo, a known magic user (and Strange’s nemesis). With Dr. Strange seeming to be headed for combat in his upcoming movie, we’re curious if that storyline will come into play at all.
Everett Collection / Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker Says His Best Friend Betrayed Him
Obviously, each universe in the multiverse has a bit of a different story. Each Peter Parker has a slightly different family and friends. While Tom Holland’s Peter has Ned as a best friend, the others don’t. In fact, Tobey Maguire’s Peter tells Ned in this movie that his best friend betrayed him and died in his arms, his best friend being Harry Osborn (James Franco), who became Green Goblin after his father, Norman, died. Ned is visibly shaken by this statement and tells his Peter that he’ll never turn into a supervillain and try to kill him.
Everett Collection / Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Ned's Memories of Peter Parker Have Been Erased
Here’s the thing, though. Even though Ned promises Peter that he’ll never turn on him, he currently has no idea who he is. Peter asks Dr. Strange to erase his existence from everyone’s memories so he can go back to anonymity and so he can stop hurting people with his life as Spider-Man. This, unfortunately, means that MJ and Ned no longer know who he is. If Ned has no allegiance to Peter Parker and Spider-Man, it’ll be much easier for him to be swayed to become Hobgoblin in an upcoming story.
