Spider-Man: No Way Home. A central part of the first Spider-Man trilogy in the MCU, Ned took on the role of Peter Parker's best friend and confidant in a character that blended elements from different comic book characters. One of those is the also named Ned Leeds, who in the comics was one of the many to take on the mantle of the villain Hobgoblin.
Despite his importance to MCU’s Peter, Ned Leeds had a role closer to comic relief in Jon Watt’s Spider-Man trilogy. Even so, Ned was an emotional anchor for Peter, and the character was given considerably greater importance in No Way Home. It was thanks to Ned and his natural aptitude for magic that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men ed the MCU.
Ned becoming the Hobgoblin is one of those setups too good not to come true. Since the character's conception in Ned to become the Hobgoblin. The missing element would be the motive behind such a change, but the fact that audiences may no longer be closely following Ned gives the MCU a blank canvas of possibilities for what will happen to the character.
It can be even more interesting for Ned to become the Hobgoblin now that both he and the rest of the world have forgotten about Peter Parker's existence. Given everything Ned and Peter went through in the first three movies, it might have come off as a little far-fetched if the former simply turned against the latter. However, Peter is now a stranger to Ned - and the friend Spider-Man once had may never exist again. Considering that No Way Home has already focused a lot on Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin, the next Spider-Man trilogy in the MCU may choose to skip Harry Osborn's storyline and to Ned the plot line of a friend of Peter Parker becoming a villain.
The Hobgoblin is also one of the few Spider-Man villains that haven’t been used in live-action nor seem to be part of Sony's Spider-Verse, and, except for No Way Home, that has been the exact type of villain that the MCU has used for its Spider-Man movies. Given how smart Ned is, the MCU's version of the Hobgoblin could be something close to a master inventor who knows no limits to his experiments and who ends up creating a super-suit capable of getting him everything he wants. This could put the character on a collision course with Spider-Man, even if Ned doesn't become a cold-blooded villain like Spidey's other foes.
After teases and jokes, the next Spider-Man trilogy should consider making Ned Leeds the Hobgoblin. Spider-Man: No Way Home's ending can be perceived as an in-universe reboot of the franchise, and now all of Spider-Man's relationships will have to be rebuilt or reimagined. Now alone in the world, Peter would find it even more challenging to deal with his best friend being corrupted.
