Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds, who started as the guy in the chair for Spider-Man in Homecoming, has grown as close as the brother to the web-crawler. The character takes Harry Osborn’s place in the MCU as Spidey’s closest confidante, and for the course of three films, he has been a loyal accomplice to Spidey’s missions. Not only the bond the two characters share is joyous to watch, but it’s also a treat to see Ned grow into a much more essential aspect of the franchise throughout the trilogy.

However, there were theories about Ned becoming Hobgoblin in No Way Home, but that didn’t happen in the movie. His casting drew attention during Homecoming as his character shared the same name as the Hobgoblins’ alter-ego in the comics, but there weren’t any hints of such a reveal in any of the three films. Now, after months of silence, Jacob Batalon was finally asked by Variety about the potential future of his character in the MCU; and making Marvel proud, he remained quite tight-lipped on the matter:

From all my years of working for Marvel, I feel like I've learned to just not say anything," Batalon said. "I can't really speak on things and then say something that might actually be true and then I ruin something, you know what I mean?

Unlike his co-star Tom Holland and learning better from his friend’s mistake, Batalon was able to keep himself away from spoiling anything. As for his character’s future in the MCU, now that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has undergone a new origin, there’s no certainty about how his character will grow in the MCU. Hence, it could be true that Batalon has no clue what decision the studio will make for him.

Speaking further about keeping hard secrets about Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire’s appearances in the film, Batalon said:

I think it was just the scariness of ruining such a great surprise. We all understood it was such a momentous thing to happen like, not just in a superhero movie, but in cinema. To actually do something that crazy is wild. We just wanted to make sure that we kept it as [quiet] as possible so everyone could genuinely be so surprised and love it.

Ned as Hobgoblin in the MCU

Ned-Hobgoblin

In No Way Home, there is a little tease about him turning villainous in a conversation between him and Raimi-verse Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire). In the conversation, Peter-2 reflects on the death of Harry Osborn (James Franco), leading Ned to go into a bit of a shock. It was a tease Holland dropped earlier in a press video and was a nice nod to Leeds’ possible transition into the comic book villain. No Way Home was also the first film to address Ned’s full name, confirming he is the same character as in the comics and not a revitalized iteration of him as the studio had done with Zendaya’s Michelle Jones-Watson.

In the comics, the character of Ned Leeds eventually turns into a villain, the menacing Hobgoblin. When Batalon lost weight for his role in No Way Home, speculations of him becoming Hobgoblin in the film surfaced for the first time. However, that certainly was not the case, and Ned turned out to be far more helpful than ever in his friend’s crusade to solve the mess his idea had caused. In fact, the film even revealed that Ned might have a knack for magic and could be a potential sorcerer, speculation that even Doctor Strange addresses in the film via an optimistic nod.

There’s too much going on with the character right now; from being the guy in the chair to an aspiring sorcerer, who knows what Marvel turns him into. But whatever it will be, it will be something crucial, making Batalon a central character in the MCU’s Spider-Man series.