'Amazing Spider-Man 2': Chris Cooper is Norman Osborn

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Published on February 27, 2013 08:00PM EST

COOPER OSBORN — Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images; Marvel

You probably thought that, since the Amazing Spider-Man sequel started filming a couple weeks ago, we were probably done with internet-imploding casting announcements. Well, you were wrong…dead wrong! EW has confirmed the news, originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter, that Chris Cooper has joined the cast of 2 Amazing 2 Spider-Man as Norman Osborn, the father of Peter’s best friend Harry, who is destined to become Spider-verse uber-baddy the Green Goblin. Cooper is stepping into a role that was previously played by Willem Dafoe, who unfortunately had to spend half of 2002’s Spider-Man in a green exoskeleton that made him look like Lord Zedd‘s lame step-brother.

It’s unclear exactly how big a role Cooper will play in the sequel. The movie’s nominal villain is Jamie Foxx’s Electro, plus maybe also Paul Giamatti’s Rhino, and that’s not to mention new arrivals like Dane DeHaan’s Harry Osborn and Shailene Woodley’s Mary Jane Watson. (Shockingly, there are no rumors about the possibility of casting Jennifer Lawrence as Felicia Hardy, unless even saying that there are no rumors counts as a rumor, gossip gossip gossip.) Assuming they’re planning to go Full Saga with the Amazing franchise, it seems likely that Cooper will appear as a minor character in 2, setting up a very Goblin-ful threequel. The point is, there are now at least three Oscar winners in the cast of a Spider-Man movie, proving that we live in a golden age of…well, something.

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