What Happened to the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man?
The Lizard was the antagonist for Andrew Garfield's first movie as Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man. Initially, he's Dr. Curt Connors, an Oscorp scientist specialising in cross-species genetics who allows Peter to help him on a regenerative serum project. Unfortunately, Connors is forced to rush the serum, and in testing it on himself, he accidentally transforms himself into a violent human-lizard hybrid. Spider-Man tries to stop him. They repeatedly battle until Peter and Gwen Stacy release an antidote that returns him to normal, but not before the Lizard kills Gwen's father. He's sent to prison, where he encounters a shadowy figure asking if Peter knows the truth about his parents.
Why is the Lizard in Spider-Man: No Way Home?
The fact that the Lizard is back in fighting, villainous form isn't the surprising part about his appearance in No Way Home. What's notable is that Doctor Strange tells Peter that all of the returning villains were fated to die at Spider-Man's hands. The problem is, as far as we know, the Lizard was defeated and imprisoned alive, not killed, making Strange's statement especially intriguing.