The Amazing Spider-Man Star Teases Return in No Way Home

The Amazing Spider-Man star Rhys Ifans is shedding light on the Lizard’s return in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The sequel set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe pits Peter Parker (Tom Holland) against multiversal villains​ from other worlds, including Green Goblin (Spider-Man‘s Willem Dafoe) and Doctor Octopus (Spider-Man 2‘s Alfred Molina). Also confirmed to return​ is Jamie Foxx as Electro, the electrifying enemy who shocked the wall-crawler of his world (Andrew Garfield) in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Also revealed in the trailer: all-CGI villains​ Sandman, played by Thomas Haden Church in 2007’s Spider-Man 3, and Lizard, played by Ifans in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man.   

Asked if he’s reprising his Amazing Spider-Man role in No Way Home, a grinning Ifans told Murphy’s Multiverse, “Well, you know, like most Christmas presents, the good thing is not knowing what’s in them until it’s time to open them.” 

Co-producers Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have yet to reveal whether Church and Ifans are back as their respective villains, so far shown only in their monstrous non-human forms in marketing material. Dafoe, Malina, and Foxx sat down for a villains panel after trailers revealed Spider-foes from the Raimi-verse and the Webb-verse would enter the MCU in No Way Home, the result of a botched secret-identity-erasing spell​ cast by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). 

In 2015, before Sony abandoned The Amazing Spider-Man continuity to bring a rebooted Spidey into the MCU in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Ifans reacted to the franchise restart: “I have absolutely no opinion on it. No opinion,” he told Total Film at the time. “I hope that when they reboot, there will be more emphasis on the ‘boot’ than the ‘re,’ because it needs a kick up the arse.”

With Spider-Man’s identity now revealed, our friendly neighborhood web-slinger is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life as Peter Parker from the high stakes of being a superhero. When Peter asks for help from Doctor Strange, the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17.