It may have been a foregone conclusion, but Dylan Baker himself confirmed the good news that he would indeed be reprising his role as Peter Parker’s one-armed Professor/mentor, during a Q&A for Mike Dougherty’s “Trick-r-Treat” (which, by the way, everyone should see, because it’s awesome). While Dr. Connors has appeared in minor roles in the first two Spidey flicks, usually with fewer lines than Bruce Campbell, there has been constant chatter on the interwebs that this may be the film where we finally see Connors transform into the vicious Lizard. For a few more details on what was said at the Q&A, change out your web cartridge and hit the jump.

Ugo reports that after confirming that he had just gotten the call about “Spider-Man 4” that very day, Baker joked with “Trick-r-Treat” writer/director Dougherty about his role in the film, with Dougherty saying that Baker’s character was “just appearing in the background” and that the possibility of the Lizard would just be “a cocktease for another year”. Baker apparently joined in the joking, but it’s unclear whether he was actually confirming a small role for Connors or if he was giving a wink and a nod.

I’m going to drop any objectivity here and say that having the Lizard appear in “Spider-Man 4” would effing rock. Dylan Baker is a fantastic actor and deserves more to do in the Spidey series. It would also play insanely well to Sam Raimi’s darker sensibilities, and would give him the opportunity for more Evil Dead homages like we saw with the Doc Ock surgery scene in “Spider-Man 2”. Story-wise, having the Lizard as a villain could also open the possibility of Kraven the Hunter appearing in the film. Some may say that having too many villains was the downfall of “Spider-Man 3”, but I say no. Shitty writing and poor decision making were the downfall of “Spider-Man 3”. Multiple villains can and have been done well in other films, like “The Dark Knight” for example.

In the perfect world that I dream of, “Spider-Man 4” would feature Connors becoming the Lizard, with superhunter Sergei Kravinoff showing up in New York to hunt the beast. Spider-Man must stop the Lizard, but also protect him from Kraven because he knows it’s his friend and mentor on the inside. It would be like the inverse of his relationship with Norman Osborn in the first film. I know they may not be the most popular Spidey-rogues, but ya know who is popular? Venom, and we all saw that movie, so there. Oh, and I’d totally have Bruce Campbell play Mysterio in an opening action sequence. How awesome would that be? In any event, hopefully “Spider-Man 4” proves to be a return to form for the series and for Raimi after “Spider-Man 3” broke all our hearts. “Spider-Man 4” is set to be released in May of 2011.