Nearly four months ago, word had gotten out that veteran actor Paul Giamatti would be joining Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ as The Rhino. While it was a peculiar choice to include the villain in the film and cast such a talented individual to play him, the production certainly gained an excellent addition to the cast. But with the filming well under way at this point, we have yet to see the award-winning individual on set trading blows with Andrew Garfield or teaming with Jamie Foxx at all.

Well, all that changed over the weekend when we got our first official look at the character on set thanks to the director. As he’s done many times since beginning production, Webb posted a picture on his Twitter of one of his cast members before anyone else could. Here’s the tweet:

 

 

In English, the text translates to “Hello America. Meet Aleksei Sytsevich!”.  As you can probably tell, we haven’t reached the point yet where the Russian is donning the rhino suit just yet, but he still looks as angry as he ever did in the comics. But what exactly is making him so angry?

Fan-Girl.org has a plethora of set pics over on their site from that day and they show that Sytsevich has his hands full with Spider-Man as he’s trying to drive his semi truck. I could see how he’s a bit agitated by that. In addition to the action shots of Rhino vs. Spidey, there are also some great candid shots of Giamatti hanging out on set and reading the issue of ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ when his character makes his first appearance. Although it’s a pretty known fact that Rhino is Giamatti’s favorite Spider-Man villain, it’s good to see that he’s doing his homework. You can see these pictures and more in the gallery below:

If you looked through those pictures carefully, you may have noticed that Spider-Man is holding a canister with an orange serum inside of it. There are a few theories going around that whatever is in the canister is what turns Aleksei Sytsevich into the Rhino. This rumor has yet to be confirmed, but it definitely looks as if it is the reason that the two are at odds.

Now that we’ve gotten a fairly extensive first look at the Rhino, what do you think of him? I know someone is going to have something to say about those tattoos, especially the one across his forehead. I’m not even sure how much I like it, but I do like Paul Giamatti, so I’m sure that his performance will overpower that interesting choice of body art. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Shailene Woodley, Dane DeHaan, Chris Cooper, Paul Giamatti, and Sally Field is set to hit theaters in 3D on May 2, 2014.