Lizard Was Almost Comic-Accurate In Spider-Man: No Way Home Concept Art

A Spider-Man: No Way Home concept artist has revealed an early, alternate design for the Lizard that is closer to his comic counterpart. No Way Home proved to be the blockbuster event of 2021, breaking numerous records at the box office after cinemas reopened following the COVID-19 pandemic. Audiences rushed to see the first multiversal crossover film in the MCU as Tom Holland’s Peter Parker teamed up with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of the wall-crawler to combat villains from across the spider-verse.

These threats included antagonists from Sam Raimi’s original trilogy, like Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, as well as ones from Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man series, such as Jamie Foxx’s Electro. Included in the latter camp was also Dr. Curt Conners, AKA The Lizard, an Oscorp scientist who experimented on himself with Lizard DNA and became a reptilian creature. The No Way Home version was modeled after his The Amazing Spider-Man iteration, with actor Rhys Ifans returning to provide the voice.

Ian Joyner, a Visual Development Supervisor at Marvel Studios, has released early concept art of an alternate design for the Lizard in No Way Home. The design is starkly different from that seen in his original film appearance and is much closer in line with the traditional comic book look. The Lizard has a more extended snout, as per his comic look, while sporting the lab coat and purple pants that the character is most often depicted in. Joyner’s description details how the aim of the design was to incorporate these comic book elements while also showing how beastly The Lizard had become as his mutation progressed. Check out the tweet below:

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The design is certainly far closer to the character’s iconic look in the comics. Some viewers were disappointed at the lack of these design elements when The Amazing Spider-Man released in 2012 as the torn-up lab coat hung over The Lizard’s hulking frame was a constant visual reminder of the split between man and monster. Even casual audiences may agree that this design looks far more visually appealing than the character’s more humanoid look, which was unfavorably compared to the Goombas from The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

It’s unclear as to why the filmmakers did not elect to use this more comic-accurate design for Spider-Man: No Way Home. The most obvious answer would be that the team wanted the audience to be absolutely clear that this was the same version of the character they saw in the 2012 film. However, Jamie Foxx’s Electro received a radical resign in the film that felt like something of a meta-textual response to the criticism that his original blue design received in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Nevertheless, while it may be disappointing to fans that this design was never used, it is still an interesting insight into the many stages of production the film went through and the ideas that were at play.

Source: @IanJoynerArt

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