B.J. Novak Will Play Alistair Smythe In THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

By Adam Holmes on Monday, February 3rd, 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 already has three confirmed villains ready to fight Spidey, but the film might also be hinting at one its future villains as well. Today, director Marc Webb sent out a tweet talking about cast member B.J. Novak’s new book, and in parenthesis next to Novak’s name wrote “A. Smythe,” confirming that Novak would play Alistair Smythe, otherwise known as the Spider-Slayer in the comics.

Almost shot ASM2 in B+W til @bjnovak‘s (A. Smythe) promo for his excellent book ONE MORE THING beat me to it: http://t.co/axmFgum6fJ

— Marc Webb (@MarcW) February 3, 2014

Several months ago, Novak hinted that his character was someone from the comics who would be working for OsCorp and stated that while his role wasn’t pivotal, he wasn’t an extra either. Some fans speculated he would be playing Otto Octavius (which was further fueled by the appearance of Doc Ock’s arms in the trailer), but that rumor has now been put to rest.

Alistair is the second man to take on the Spider-Slayer identity after his father Spencer, who was the original creator of the Spider-Slayer robots and was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to kill Spider-Man. After his father died from radiation poisoning, Alistair inherited the Spider-Slayer legacy and sought revenge against Spider-Man and Jameson. In addition to using the robots his fathers designed, Alistair also made himself a full-body armor to fight Spider-Man on his own.

With two Amazing Spider-Man sequels and a Sinister Six spinoff in the works, it’s possible that Smythe is being set up as a future enemy to Spider-Man. Considering that every super powered three Spider-Man has to face has come out of OsCorp, it wouldn’t surprise me if Smythe is building his Spider-Slayer robots for Norman Osborn, or perhaps they’ll go the Electro route and have Smythe incur an unfortunate accident that requires his body to be put into armor similar to the one he dons in the comics.

I would be amenable to seeing Smythe become a villain. Aside from Green Goblin, the Amazing Spider-Man movies have been using villains that haven’t made cinematic appearances, and while Smythe isn’t traditionally a member of the Sinister Six, I wouldn’t mind seeing him join the group at some point. As far as arachnid-themed Spider-Man villains go, I’d prefer Scorpion make an appearance first, but Smythe is definitely an inspired choice.

SOURCE: Marc Webb