WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home, now playing in theaters.
The Lizard's appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home might at first glance seem exclusively a nod to The Amazing Spider-Man continuity. After all, Rhys Ifans reprises his role as the reptilian supervillain, and the events of his first appearance are discussed in depth. However, the character's most satisfying moment in the film comes as the culmination of foreshadowing related to a completely different Curt Connors. In perhaps its subtlest piece of fanservice, Spider-Man: No Way Home uses The Lizard to pay off a fan desire that goes all the way back to 2002.
The Lizard has been a vital part of the Spider-Man film franchise since the beginning. In Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker told Harry Osborn that he "was late for work and Doctor Connors" fired him. The mere mention of his name raised the possibility that Maguire would fight The Lizard on the big screen. It was such a tantalizing possibility that the film's 2003 animated series spin-off, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, featured an early episode where Connors (played by Rob Zombie) turned into The Lizard and died fighting Spider-Man.
Fans disappointed at this match-up only being on the small screen were relieved to see Spider-Man 2. It ignored the series and introduced Dylan Baker as an alive and well Curtis Connors. Baker would be a constant presence in both that film and Spider-Man 3, giving Peter sage advice as his teacher in both science and life. While this version was primarily a physicist, his missing arm and the lizard skeleton in his office were more than enough to whet fans appetites. The comics magazine Wizard even put him as the most likely villain to appear in the series next to Sandman in 2004. It seemed to be only a matter of time until he would face off against Maguire's web-slinger.
Alas, it was not meant to be. While Sam Raimi spoke to Baker about the possibility of playing The Lizard, the released storyboards for his Spider-Man 4 featured villains such as Vulture and Mysterio but no sign of The Lizard. Sony would scuttle this project in favor of a full reboot in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man. Ironically, The Lizard ended up being the villain of the fourth Spider-Man movie, but it was Ifans' brand new take on the character opposite Andrew Garfield as a different Peter Parker. The Raimi trilogy's foreshadowing had seemingly come to nothing.
Little could 2012 audiences suspect that they would see this Lizard team up with Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus nine years later. No Way Home's multiversal team-up manages to mash-up characters from all three Spider-Man movie universes with their continuity intact. Unfortunately, the film doesn't acknowledge the original trilogy's Curt Conners. Even Doctor Octopus seems more surprised at seeing Norman Osborn than a different Curt Connors, despite his friendship with Connors being a vital part of Spider-Man 2. Neither does Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man acknowledge the difference when he's informed about the villains' return. Those hoping to see him finally take on The Lizard might be forgiven for not thinking their rivalry would be acknowledged. But No Way Home had one last trick up its sleeve.
The film waited until its final battle to deliver on fan expectations. As soon as The Lizard appears on the scene, the Spider-Man he goes after is not his own but Tobey Maguire. After 20 years, fans finally got to see Tobey's Peter Parker dodge and outwit The Lizard on screen. Garfield's Spider-Man got to have his own moment with The Lizard as did Holland's, but letting "Peter 2" get the first crack at him as the first villain he fought onscreen in 14 years smoothly paid off all those years of speculation and hype. It may not be the exact same version of The Lizard audiences expected him to fight, but the end result is the same.
This fanservice shows how Spider-Man: No Way Home utilized the concept better than most films of its caliber. Without dwelling on it or stopping the story, it paid off a fan desire that had been building for 19 years. Most audience members see Maguire's Spider-Man fighting The Lizard and enjoy it as just another part of the final fight, but for long-time Spider-Man fans, it represented something they had wanted to see for years.
Sure, it may not have been Dylan Baker's voice roaring at Maguire. It may have even taken place in another universe. But for one brief shining moment, though, those fans who had grown up with the franchise got to see something they had waited years for. Even in small moments such as these, Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to be a thoroughly satisfying experience.