It’s been a mere two days since Rhys Ifans was cast as the Spidey villain,
but in that time a million and a half rumors were spun.  He was
Electro, he was the Lizard, he was Venom, he was Mysterio, he was Green
Goblin ….

It was believed that Sony wanted it remain a secret. 
If they had wanted everyone to know, wouldn’t they just say “Ifans is
playing [Spidey Villain]” so the Internet could sleep at night? 

Well, if it was a surprise, The Wrap has spoiled it.  Ifans will be playing Dr. Curt Connors, aka The Lizard.

This
has been a villain Spidey fans were clamoring for Raimi to take on —
especially since he dangled poor Dylan Baker along for three movies —
and now they will get him.   Since this Spidey is in school,  it’s
certainly easy to set this up as a dangerous student-professor
relationship.   And I have no doubt Ifans (who looks like a rumpled and
tired scientist) can knock it out of the park, and make it suitably
tragic as the Lizard destroys Connors from within.

ETA: Sony issued a “no comment”, just as they have with all Spidey stories so far.