Well, the following excerpt from an interview with Rhys Ifans over at Ain't It Cool News certainly makes THIS editorial (written by yours truly) a little pointless, eh? The Welsh actor has confirmed that the "Man in the Shadows" played by Michael Massee was in fact NOT Norman Osborn. However, he goes on to hint that it is instead an established character of some sort involved with Oscorp who MIGHT end up being the villain in the planned sequel currently being written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
Okay, what do you think about that ending?
Well, Connors is basically locked up in a very high-security mental institution.
We were debating whether it was a prison or a mental institute.
It's not a zoo. [laughs] I kept seeing it as maybe a mixture of both. Then a representative from OsCorp appears miraculously in the room. How he gets in there and how he leaves, we don’t know. Maybe we will find out. But it’s not Norman Osborn.
It’s not? You can say that?
Yeah. But it is someone who is in the employ of Norman Osborn without question.
Someone we're familiar with, who we don’t know is employed by Osborn?
Yeah. Who knows? Maybe he will be the next bad guy; we’ll see.
What do you guys think? Sound off with your thoughts and theories in the usual place. Check out my interview with Marc Webb
HERE and be sure to click
HERE to read my 4* review of the film.
The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance - leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
STARRING:
Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy
Rhys Ifans as Curt Connors/The Lizard
Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben
Sally Fields as Aunt May
Denis Leary as George Stacy
RELEASE DATE: July 3rd, 2012.