Marc Webb confirms B.J. Novak's character in 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'

Fans who have watched news on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for the past several months know that B.J. Novak (The Office) has a minor role in the film, but the actor never divulged what the role would be. Now, director Marc Webb has spilled the beans, and it opens up some juicy possibilities.

Webb posted on Twitter a video to promote Novak's book, One More Thing, and he named the actor's character in the process: "A. Smythe." Devoted fans know that stands for Alistair Smythe, a villain from the Spider-Man comics.

Almost shot ASM2 in B+W til @bjnovak's (A. Smythe) promo for his excellent book ONE MORE THING beat me to it: https://t.co/axmFgum6fJ

— Marc Webb (@MarcW) February 3, 2014

As with many other characters in Spider-Man's world, Smythe has gone through numerous incarnations over the years, but the character is the son of Spencer Smythe, who was hired to make robots known as Spider-Slayers to try and take out the wall crawler. Spencer never succeeded, though, and Alistair followed in his footsteps. The character is at first stuck in a wheelchair but eventually gets the idea to turn himself into "The Ultimate Spider-Slayer" and enhances his own body via cybernetics. He would then make Spidey's life difficult for years to come.

Some had pegged Novak for Smythe and others figured he would play Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus. Webb initially tweeted the news of Novak's casting with the words "A supposed rumor about a Dunder-Mifflin takeover of Oscorp?"He could have just been joking around, but Smythe likely works for Oscorp in the Amazing Spider-Man universe because, hey, everyone else does.

Does this mean that we will see Spider-Slayers in this movie or the next? Not necessarily, but we do know that the series is building toward a broader universe. Still, these movies are going to start to get crowded after a while, unless we make it to The Amazing Spider-Man 24.

What do you think? Do you see Spider-Slayers in the films' future? Let us know in the comments below.