From mystery man to rumor mill to apparent confirmation, it didn't take long for Sony Pictures' plans for The Lizard to be the big bad in their newly rebooted and yet unnamed fourth "Spider-Man" movie to hit the web.

As reported on the site TheWrap, Welsh actor Rhys Ifans will play Dr. Curt Connors - one of Peter Parker's teachers who transforms himself into a giant lizard as part of an experiment to regrow a lost limb. The studio confirmed that Ifans had been cast as a villain earlier this week before rampant speculation ran across the internet on who he'd play from Venom to Kraven before rumors began strongly pointing towards The Lizard.

Ifans joins "The Social Network's" Andrew Garfield and "Easy A's" Emma Stone who will portray Peter Parker and his high school crush Gwen Stacey respectively for director Marc Webb.

While the studio hasn't yet confirmed the Lizard's role in the movie, the character's alter ego was a piece of the franchise to date (previously played by actor Dylan Baker), and fans and industry watchers will doubtlessly be wondering why the filmmakers went with a classic '60s villain created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko when it was widely reported that director Sam Raimi had left the franchise over creative differences on using more original bad guys as opposed to the new blood of Spidey foes.

For more on this story, see the original report at TheWrap and for more on "Spider-Man's" film future, stay tuned to CBR and Spinoff Online.