As we’ve already seen from various photos and trailers, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ will feature a number of villains. With the main foe being Jaime Foxx’s Electro, Spidey will also have to contend with Rhino and the Green Goblin. But one baddie that Peter Parker won’t have to deal with is his former adversary Dr. Curt Connors AKA The Lizard.

According to The Daily Bugle, a viral website for Marc Webb’s upcoming adventure featuring the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler, the former Oscorp employee played by Rhys Ifans was found guilty for multiple crimes during his stint as the raging reptile. This provides a nice bit of closure on the character if we don’t see him again on the big screen, but I wouldn’t count on the Lizard being gone for good. Here’s the full report:

“The trial of Dr. Curt Connors came to an end as the former geneticist for Oscorp Industries was found guilty on all twenty counts for which he was indicted, including the murder of NYPD Captain George Stacy.

Connors and his attorney, Anne Weying, were unable to convince the jury that he was not responsible for his deadly actions while transformed. His defense that he only injected himself with the serum that changed him into the Lizard to prevent Oscorp Industries from experimenting on innocent civilians did not sway the jury.

Next stop: Rikers. But even that is controversial. Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane has said their facility is better served for housing and studying a prisoner such as Connors, but the judge has yet to rule on where Curt Connors will spend what is likely to be the rest of his life.”

I may not have said this before, but I absolutely love The Daily Bugle. This is a pretty awesome piece of viral marketing that not only fills in the blanks nicely between the two movies in this rebooted franchise, but it also throws out a number of Easter Eggs for long-time Spidey fans to find. For instance, this article is written by Joy Mercado, a reporter who has had frequent run-ins with our hero. The bigger surprise is seeing Anne Weying’s name pop up. The successful lawyer is also known to True Believers as Eddie Brock’s ex-wife and the first person to be known as She-Venom after bonding with the alien symbiote. Of course, this doesn’t mean that these characters will actually appear onscreen, but it is nice to see that this universe that Webb and Sony are creating is paying attention to the source material and it’s long, illustrious history filled with these memorable (and sometimes very obscure) characters. However, they did announce a Venom movie recently, so who knows what’s in the cards for Ms. Weying?

Speaking of recently announced movies, another thought that comes to mind in relation to this report from The DB is the Sinister Six movie. With Lizard in Rikers as opposed to Ravencroft, wouldn’t it be easy for the team of villains to bust him out? Not sure if they’ll go in that direction, but it’s something that just crossed my mind.

Anyway, what do you think of this unique viral marketing tool for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’? Are you enjoying the posts from The Daily Bugle? What do you think this story means for the Lizard and his future appearances on the big screen? Let us know in the comments below.

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