Rhys Ifans was attached to the Spider-Man reboot without a character announcement, but it didn’t take long for word to get out as to who he would play.
Ifans will play Dr. Curt Connors – the one armed science teacher who becomes The Lizard!
‘Spider-Man‘ reboot director Marc Webb gave the villain guessing game away when he said “Rhys’ incredible ability to embody both warmth and rage makes him the ideal choice for this character”.
From that comment, it was only ever going to be The Lizard – Peter Parker’s science teacher and mentor who accidentally transforms his DNA into that of a hideous reptilian creature, a result of a failed experiment to grow back a missing arm he lost in ‘Nam. It’s the classic horror staple of a good man’s vanity and desire to mess with nature being the catalyst for his tragic downfall. Rhys’ casting as The Lizard has now been confirmed.
As with any Reboot, they have to keep away from rehashing old villains to avoid the obvious comparisons the film is going to get to the previous version. They toyed with Connors, but never quite got to playing that story out.
I like the idea of The Lizard, and while nerd rage across the net is defying such a choice, the character fits well.
As a common theme in the comics and in the films, Spider-Man is often faced against villains that are not pure evil and he has to struggle that he knows there is a good person behind these misguided miscreants as he battles them. It is the very thing that gives heart to the movies.
I have no doubt that Ifans will play a great Dr Connors, though if they are going to keep Peter in Highschool it is likely he will be a highschool science teacher, not his college professor. The character lost his arm serving in the military, and in an effort to use lizard DNA to encourage his human body to grow it back, the experiment backfires and makes Connors into a violent Lizard monster.
I would guess that they would CG The Lizard and Ifans will play Connors.
What do you think of the casting?
