Dr. Curtis "Curt" Connors, also known as the Lizard, was one of the antagonists intended to appear in the cancelled Spider-Man 4. He did appear already in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, being a mentioned character in the 2002 film and a supporting character in the two sequels.
Connors is a physicist who teaches as a professor at Columbia University. Peter Parker is one of his students, and he was a good friend of Otto Octavius before he turned into Doc Ock. In the comics, Connors transforms into the Lizard due to his obsession with getting his right arm back after losing it long ago.
He was played by Dylan Baker in the films, and likely would have returned to the role in Spider-Man 4.
History[]
Director Sam Raimi had expressed interest in using the Lizard for a long time. Naturally by the second film he introduced the character of Dr. Connors. Raimi thought that having the character first appear as Connors would make an easy opening for the character to transform into Lizard for a future sequel.
Concept artist Constantine Sekeris did some designs for Raimi, when the director briefly toyed with idea of the character appearing in either the second or third film. Ultimately when scripting Spider-Man 4, Raimi had finally decided that it would the time to transform the character. Lizard likely would have shared the villain spot with Vulture, both villains Raimi was a huge fan of. Actor Dylan Baker and producer Grant Curtis were also into the idea.
However, Spider-Man 4 was eventually cancelled and a reboot The Amazing Spider-Man was released in 2012. Connors and his Lizard persona still appeared however, only it was a new version of the character played by Rhys Ifans.
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Trivia[]
- In Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, which is an alternate continuation of the Raimiverse. A version of Dr. Connors appears and transforms into Lizard in the episode Law of the Jungle, there he was voiced by Rob Zombie.
- In the video game adaptation of Spider-Man 2, Dr. Connors makes an appearance and is voiced by Joe Alaskey. He was originally supposed to turn into the Lizard in the game, however this was scrapped. Nevertheless, hints of the character's transformation remained in the final game.
- In the video game adaptation of Spider-Man 3, Dr. Connors does appear, and this time transforms into the Lizard. There he is voiced by Nathan Carlson; this version has the basic origin story. Later in the game he is hunted down and transforms into Mega Lizard.
- This cancelled version of The Lizard is similar to the Scarecrow that would be in Batman Unchained. Both villains were slated to appear for a film that never came to fruition, however the reboots that took these scrapped sequels' place still had the villains. A version of The Lizard appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man and so did Scarecrow in Batman Begins.
- In Spider-Man: No Way Home, where the three Spider-Men start to fight their villains, the first villain that Raimiverse Spider-Man fights is The Amazing Spider-Man Lizard, this could be a possible reference to the cancelled Spider-Man 4, where Tobey's Spider-Man would have fought the Lizard.
- That said, as Tobey's Spider-Man makes no mention of his reality's Curt Connors becoming the Lizard, it's possible that Dylan Baker's Connors never became the Lizard.
- Dylan Baker has since expressed his regrets over Spider-Man 4 being cancelled, as he really wished to play the Lizard and, while a fan of Rhys Ifans' performance as the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man, he was left with the interest of playing the role.