Spider-Man: No Way Home was far and away the biggest movie of 2021 and the first film to enjoy the kind of box office success associated with blockbusters in the pre-pandemic era.
Much of that had to do with the film's utilization of the multiverse, a concept familiar to Marvel comic book fans, which allowed characters who exist within their own fictional universe to crossover into one another's timelines.
In the case of this latest Spider-Man outing, director Jon Watts along with writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers were able to utilize the talents of a further two Spider-Men in actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, who both played the role prior to Tom Holland.
Roped in as part of a movie that saw their three universes blend together with earth-shattering consequences, the film was also notable for bringing back some of the franchise's most notable villains and the actors behind them.
While the likes of Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx and Thomas Haden Church all delighted fans by reprising their roles as Dr. Octopus, Electro and the Sandman, respectively, it was Willem Dafoe, back as the original film's big villain, the Green Goblin, who stole the show.
Originally killed off after a showdown with Maguire's Peter Parker in the very first Sam Raimi directed film, Spider-Man: No Way Home saw Dafoe earn rave reviews with the seasoned actor living up to the billing as arguably the web-slinger's most feared and iconic arch-nemesis.
It's a performance that fans continue to pore over, as one recent revelation shared on Reddit, highlights. In the post, which has been upvoted 21,000 times, one eagle-eyed Spider-Man fan has revealed a lesser known detail behind Dafoe's appearance in both 2002's Spider-Man and the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe outing.
Sharing a set of pictures showing Dafoe as both his character Norman Osborn and his evil alter-ego, the Green Goblin, the Redditor writes: "Willem Dafoe wears prosthetics as Norman Osborn, but as the Goblin persona he retains Dafoe's natural, less perfect, teeth."
Looking at the side-by-side images, the revelation becomes apparent with Dafoe's front teeth noticeably different in the two comparison shots from Spider-Man and Spider-Man: No Way Home. That impressive attention to detail was not lost on fans of the movie, who flocked to comment on the Reddit post.
Light_Beard commented: "I have seen that movie probably 20 times and never noticed his teeth before." TrollTollTony was similarly impressed. "Raimi's Spider-Man is my favorite movie, it was the first DVD I owned and I watched it on loop for at least a week and watch it a few times a year," they wrote. "I can confidently say I've seen that movie at least 50 times and I never noticed this."
Those sentiments were echoed by Lgru13, who wrote: "Holy s*** I have never seen this before. This is crazy." Earthpigjohnson, called the revelation "super interesting" and added: "I doubt I ever would've noticed. What a cool, subtle change."
Others like Bigevil621, meanwhile, took the post as an opportunity to praise Dafoe's performance, writing: "There's never been someone more born to play a specific comic book role than Dafoe for Green Goblin."
IWearBone138 was in agreement. "Dafoe is kind of in a league of his own," they said. "For a pretty weird looking guy, he seems to melt into any role. I'm just glad he took the role in the first place."
However some, like Goteamnick, thought the fact Dafoe was made to change his teeth "can't be great for his self-esteem."
"Hey Willem. We thought when you were playing the good character you would wear these perfect fake teeth. And when you're playing an evil maniac, your regular teeth will do just fine," they joked.
According to IMDb, Dafoe was fitted with "prosthetic teeth" for the role of Osborn as "producers didn't feel a person as rich as Norman Osborn couldn't afford to get his teeth straightened out."
Dafoe has spoken openly about his distinctive teeth. In 2016, he appeared in the short film Mind The Gap, shot by actor/director Grigoriy Dobrygin, for the annual children's charity auction Action!
The film saw Dafoe speak candidly about his front ivories. In the short, he recalled: "My father did talk about the virtues of spaces in your teeth, and described his and mine as 'air cooled.'"
The Reddit discovery comes hot on the heels of another comic book movie Easter egg found in Christopher Nolan's second Batman film, The Dark Knight.
Other notable behind-the-scenes revelations to go viral on social media have included a surprise cameo in Robin William's Mrs Doubtfire and the unexpected appearance of another actor in Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jack Beresford is a Newsweek Senior Internet Culture & Trends Reporter, based in London, UK. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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