Dr. Curt Connors will be in SPIDER-MAN 4 but....
...he won't become the slavering tongued half man/half mutant creature-villain The Lizard just yet.
...he won't become the slavering tongued half man/half mutant creature-villain The Lizard just yet. That's according to actor Dylan Baker who got a call yesterday confirming he is IN for the May 2011 released fourth installment of the web-slinging saga but only as a "background player", similar to his previous supporting stints in Spider-Man 2 and 3. An appearance as The Lizard will be a co*ktease for another year". 
Clearly the situation is very reminiscent of the Billy Dee Williams/Two-Face saga, as the big elephant in the room is whether Baker is a big enough name to bring in the masses (though surely Spidey himself is the draw here, just like the 007 series) but I guess as long as they keep casting Baker, there is hope they will follow through one day with his villainous turn. I guess more likely is the troublesome "creature as villain idea" which most definitely didn't work with Venom in the last movie and by using Connors you would have to go down the "cliched experiment gone wrong" avenue again and the "well he's not really evil, the serum is making him insane" formula, ala Doc Ock. But we didn't get one of those plots in Spider-Man 3, so I wouldn't be surprised if Sony execs think it's due a re-tooling. Wouldn't we all be much more comfortable with the idea of a human obsessive bounty hunter like Kraven or a recession relevant Mysterio (as played by Bruce Campbell) as the main antagonist? My money is that Raimi still wants to use Morbius for this one (and I'm sure Sony do for the Twilighters crowd) or maybe Ben Kingsley as The Vulture.