Spider-Man: No Way Home Star Responds To Ned’s Hobgoblin Future Question

screenrant.com:

Jacob Batalon discusses the possibility of his character, Ned Leeds, becoming the villainous Hobgoblin in future MCU Spider-Man movies following the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Batalon has played the character since his debut in Tom Holland’s first solo film Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. The high-school best friend of Peter Parker was one of the first people the hero told about his secret super-identity. Ned has been Peter’s “guy in the chair,” and has helped him on his adventures. In his latest appearance; 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ned discovered he had the ability to manipulate the sling ring belonging to Doctor Strange in order to open portals. When Holland’s Spider-Man met with his multiverse variants played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, Ned was concerned to learn how Peter’s closest friends in other timelines frequently turned evil and attempted to kill him.

Fans of the comics found this throwaway gag a lot more interesting with the knowledge of Ned’s Marvel comics’ history. The original Ned Leeds was actually a work-rival of Peter’s at the Daily Bugle who competed for the affection of newspaper secretary Betty Brant. This Ned was not an innocent, bubbly companion, but an abusive and dark counterpart. Leeds was one of several characters to take on the mantle of the villainous Hobgoblin; one of Spider-Man’s iconic comic-book foes who featured regularly in the 90s animated cartoon. With Ned in the MCU now gaining supernatural abilities, and learning of Peter’s multiversal history of villainous best-friends, many Marvel fans are eager to see if Batalon’s character will eventually don the hood and glider.

Related: Ned Should Become The MCU’s Hobgoblin (But Not In Spider-Man 4)

Now, in an interview