We are about to talk openly about the character of Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Leave now if you havent seen the movie.
Norman Osborn dies on screen. Chris Cooper has a conversation with his son, Harry (Dane DeHaan), and passes on the "Osborn curse" a disease in the family bloodline that Norman has been trying to cure for decades through his aggressive genetic research at OsCorp. He failed, and right before he died, he passed to Harry a cube using his fantastically grotesque goblin hands that has information Norman hopes can lead Harry to a cure. But how can Norman be dead? Doesnt he have to play a major role in future movies? I asked Marc Webb, and he told me:
"As for his future
I mean, I dont really want to say anything. Hes dead. Hes dead. He actually died. How about that?"
Fair enough. But for anyone who has endured a Marvel movie since The Avengers, we know that no one dies in a superhero movie. They all come back in the "thrilling" third act reveal! So I tabled the Norman "death" discussion and spoke with Webb about the physical look of Norman in The Amazing Spider-Man 2
particularly those demonic hands. And the director told me that there was real inspiration to the appearance of Norman in this movie, saying:
Part of that came from the comics the more grotesque parts of that character. The other thing is that Id imagined [Norman] had been treating himself with all different types of things, none of which worked. He had been using himself as a test case. Part of his skin discolorization was from his disease. But part also came from those cross-species experiments that he had been developing in Curt Connors lab."
Speaking of color, there was something I noticed in a very important moment in Normans time on screen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and its something you need to look out for when you go see the movie. After Norman dies, Webb includes a scene where techs are breaking down the bed where Chris Cooper was confined. And if you pay attention, youll see a green laser scan over Normans body. I asked Marc Webb what that laser represents, and he was legitimately shocked that I noticed it.
Wow. I am impressed. Thats good. There is meaning behind the laser, yes. That will have impact
Whether or not it will be in the Sinister Six movie, or the next Spider-Man movie, I dont know. Thats the question, and I actually dont know the answer to that myself. But that [laser] does have meaning."