Electro may be the villain that Spider-Man fought the most during 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but the climatic battle with The Green Goblin was most devastating for him. Although Peter Parker was able to defeat his former friend Harry Osborn, he was unable to save the love of his life, Gwen Stacy, from falling to her death. Mirroring what happened in the comics, the scene was considered by many to be one of the more positive elements on the film. However, that scene originally ended in a different and much more violent way.
Set photographer Niko Tavernise posted pictures on Instagram of how the fight between Spider-Man and Green Goblin in the clock tower was originally supposed to go down. In the final cut of the film, after knocking Goblin unconscious, Peter peeled off his mask and cried while holding Gwen’s body. However, in the original version, Goblin is still conscious, and after seeing Peter weeping over Gwen, he mockingly laughs at him. This sends Peter into a rage, causing to pummel the villain in anger with both his fists and the Goblin’s own glider. He does stop short of killing him, but the Goblin is seen with wounds all over his face.
Peter reacting violently to Gwen’s death is similar to what happened when Norman Osborn killed her in the comics. Although another confrontation didn’t occur immediately afterwards, Peter was able to track Norman to his secret lair and nearly killed him. Once Peter stopped beating Norman up, the villain discreetly sent his glider to impale Spider-Man from behind, but Spidey dodged it thanks to his Spider-Sense, and Norman was impaled instead. Many of you probably remember that scene being adapted for the 2002 Spider-Man film.
You can check out the final version of Peter reacting to Gwen’s death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 below.
Whether it was the original version or the theatrical one, both scenes ended with Harry alive and soon after imprisoned. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 wrapped up with Harry working with Gustav Fiers to form the Sinister Six, but now that Marvel and Sony are teaming up to bring us a new Spider-Man in the MCU, we’ll never see their plans come to fruition. I guess Harry can take comfort in the fact that his injuries were less severe in the theatrical cut, though being stuck in the Ravencroft Institute doesn’t make things much better.
