amanda_armstrong@realsimple.com

Though Spider-Man has yet to hit theaters, Columbia Pictures is already lining up the next round of bad guys for Tobey Maguire's movie wall-crawler. ''They were thinking of two [villains] in the next one, which is a good idea,'' says Kirsten Dunst, who along with Maguire is signed on for at least two more films. (Director Sam Raimi recently agreed to helm Spider-Man 2.) Dunst notes that in addition to facing fan fave Dr. Octopus, a rogue ex-atomic researcher with four steel tentacles, Spidey is likely to confront ''a lizard thing.'' The latter should come as no surprise to keen-eared comic connoisseurs: Halfway through the new film, Maguire's alter ego Peter Parker reveals that he's just been fired from the office of one ''Dr. Connors''—a name shared by the troubled scientist who becomes Spidey's arch-nemesis Lizard (above right). That should spin plenty of talk on the Web. -- Mari Cartel and Brian M. Raftery