The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is really going all out to get people to forget about that original trilogy. I mean, Shailene Woodley was casted as Mary Jane Watson, Jamie Foxx was casted as Electro, Dane DeHaan was casted as Harry Osborne and now Paul Giamatti? As The Rhino!?

That’s what The Hollywood Reporter is reporting, at least. Back in 2011, Giamatti praised The Rhino as a character.

“I thought Rhino was the greatest thing when I was a little kid,” he told ShowbizSpy in March 2011. “It was a guy who was basically in this rhinoceros outfit, and I always thought, ‘Why don’t they have The Rhino in one of their movies.’ But maybe The Rhino wasn’t that big of a deal for anybody but me. … If they ever go with The Rhino, I would be ready and waiting.”

Ready, waiting and negotiating. The Hollywood Reporter does a good job of breaking down the history of the character.

The Rhino first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #41in 1966 as a thug from a Soviet Bloc country who wore a superhuman suit that made him invulnerable while giving him superstrength and superspeed. It also had a deadly horn on top.

In more recent comics, he became a sympathetic figure who found himself allying with Spider-Man.

So either Rhino is going to team up with Garfield’s Spider-Man or Electro is putting together the Sinister Six… maybe. Probably not, that’s just some crazy speculation from me. Really though, that’s the only way they could play this. Rhino is either helping one or the other. The character isn’t strong enough to be a leading villain, like Electro is, and Giamatti isn’t the biggest guy… so it’ll be interesting to see how they do this if Giamatti signs on. [The Hollywood Reporter]

paul giamatti, the amazing spider-man 2, the rhino