Willem Dafoe thought it was 'nutty' when they asked to bring him back for 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' since his character died in the 2002 movie

• Willem Dafoe reprises his iconic villain role of the Green Goblin in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
• At Brazil's Comic Con Experience, Dafoe recalled his reaction to learning they wanted him back.

When Willem Dafoe first heard they wanted him back for another "Spider-Man" movie almost 20 years after his character was killed, he was surprised.

"When I heard it, I thought, well that's pretty nutty," Dafoe said of being approached to reprise his iconic Spidey villain, Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin, in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" during a virtual panel at Brazil's annual Comic Con Experience earlier this month.

"I got speared pretty good in the first film," Dafoe said, recalling the Goblin's death in the 2002 film at the hands of his own glider. "But I thought, 'OK. They can figure out a way to bring me back.'"

Dafoe said director Jon Watts pitched the entire sequel idea to him before he even read a script.

"It sounded like a lot of fun and a good solution and then when we went deeper into it, I liked the idea that I was returning to something that was same but different," Dafoe said of how Osborn is brought back in "No Way Home." "It's a return to something I did before with that kind of history but there's a spin on it and that appealed to me."

In a separate clip released by Sony Pictures, Dafoe said it was an important to him that his return would be more than some "power cameo."

If he was going to reprise the role, he wanted to do as much stunt work as possible.

Dafoe is 66.

"To do this physical stuff was important to me," Dafoe said in a pre-taped interview for the studio. "One of the first things I said to Jon and [producer] Amy [Pascal], basically when they pitched it to me, before there was even a script, was, 'Listen, I don't want to just pop in there as a cameo or just fill in in close-ups. I want to do the action because that's fun for me."

Dafoe added, "It's really impossible to add any integrity or any fun to the character if you don't participate in these things because all that action stuff informs your relationship to the characters and the story, and also it makes you earn your right to play the character."

And he does.

The actor has a larger role than you may expect in "No Way Home" that isn't only heavy on the dialogue, it's also big on the action. Dafoe has a few action and fight sequences in the film.

Fans who have seen the film are hailing Dafoe's performance with many saying he outdid his 2002 take on the character, cementing his status as one of the greatest, if not the best, superhero movie villain.

—Spider-Kasey Saw NWH (@RawbertBeef) December 17, 2021

—A+ (@_iamthelegend_) December 18, 2021

—Mad #LicoricePizzaSweep (@thedalediggler) December 16, 2021

—aaron (@mrsinatraphile) December 18, 2021

Osborn isn't the only Spidey villain returning in "No Way Home" who previously bit the dust. He's joined by Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), Max Dillon/Electro (Jamie Foxx), Dr. Connors/Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church).

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" is in theaters now. You can read our review here.