Some fans have been wondering exactly why there are so many villains in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, especially considering the last Spider-Man film to double up on villains - Spider-Man 3 - is not exactly remembered fondly. The villains (and potential villains) in ASM2 include: Jamie Foxx as Electro (confirmed), Paul Giamatti as Rhino (confirmed), Felicity Jones as Black Cat (rumored), Dane Dehaan as Venom/Hobgoblin/Green Goblin Jr. (rumored), and Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn himself. IMDb even has actor Colm Feore credited as "Adrian Toomes" in the film - a.k.a., the alter-ego of the high-flying Vulture.

Well, apparently there might be a very good reason we're seeing so many villains so soon - and that reason is The Sinister Six. In an interview at Comic-Con 2013, Jamie Foxx name-dropped the villainous Spider-Man team and hinted at the possibility of seeing them in a future Amazing Spider-Man movie.

Initially, Movies Dot Com merely asked Foxx about whether or not he'd be interested in returning for an Amazing Spider-Man sequel.

Jamie Foxx as Mat Dillon/Electro in Amazing Spider-Man 2
Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon (pre-Electro transformation)

Here's what he had the actor say:

"I'll put it to you this way: you don't really kill electricity; it just goes to another place. You can shut it off, but it's still somewhere.Look, I'm just happy and humbled to be in this one and hopefully do right by the fans in making Electro someone who has different sides. I want people to feel for him, so that when he does turn into Electro, you want to root for him. Whether he comes back again in another film ... you know, so be it."

One thing led to another and the topic of the Sinister Six came up - as it always does! To which Foxx said:

"You know, Electro was always tempted by the Sinister Six, so we'll see."

When pressed on the possibility of an actual movie featuring the Sinister Six coming to fruition, Foxx said:

"Look, stepping away from it, I would like to see something like that. That would make it, like, 'Okay, the big guys are coming to play.' "

If there's one thing that The Avengers taught us, it's that cinematic superheroes are far more interesting when they're in the same room together. While the ThorCaptain America, and Hulk movies were all fairly well-received films, seeing those characters on the big screen all at once was something special indeed.

Spider-Man versus All His Villains

In fact, one of few superhero tropes we've yet to see in superhero movies - which is surprising because there's been like a hundred in the past five years - is the supervillain team-up (The Brotherhood in X-Men doesn't really count; we're talking about major supervillains coming together for a common destructive goal here). As fun as it was to watch Earth's Mightiest Heroes butt heads and banter back and forth, seeing superpowered psychopaths and megalomaniacs solve their differences (or not) has some serious cinematic potential.

Seeing as how Spider-Man's rogues gallery is one of the best (tied with Batman, perhaps?) in comic books, it makes sense that the the Sinister Six would be the first bad guy group to break into film.

After the first Amazing Spider-Man hit theaters, our own Kofi Outlaw asked director Marc Webb about the possibility of the Sinister Six making an appearance in an Amazing Spider-Man sequel, and Webb simply smiled and said, "Oooo." So this isn't the first time we've gotten hints about the Sinister Six showing up in a future Spider-Man film.

More recently, Webb revealed that Rhino had a very small role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 because he had plans for that character down the line:

"The Rhino is in the movie for a very short time, because we’re sort of teasing out the possibility of something more interesting happening there.”

Teasing out the possibility of something more interesting? Could this "more interesting" thing end up being the Sinister Six themselves? After all, what other reason could there be for keeping villains around for later films? It seems unlikely that Rhino would be the focus of his own movie after playing a supporting role in ASM2.

The Amazing Spider-Man Rhino

UPDATE: The Comic-Con teasers continued with Webb also dropping hints to Crave Online about a more obscure Spider-Man villain making an appearance:

“What about The Gentleman?” Marc Webb said from out of the blue, while we were joking about the possibility of Philip Seymour Hoffman playing The Looter.

“That’s getting kind of obscure,” I replied, thinking he was just spitballing. “I always liked The Spot…”

He stopped me. “Think about the Gentleman,” he said. “I’m just saying. Put that in your… There’s your little tidbit. Think about The Gentleman.”

“How serious are you being?” I asked.

Webb nodded dramatically. “You’re just nodding dramatically,” I continued.

“I’m just saying,” Webb concluded, “think about The Gentleman.”

The Gentleman is basically a character that was created for a Spider-Man novel (they exist) called Spider-Man: The Gathering of The Sinister Six. The mysterious wealthy, elderly man was involved with what happened to Peter Parker's parents, and also helped gather the six villains that form the Sinister Six unit. This isn't the first time the character's name has been brought up in conjunction with the Amazing Spider-Man movie universe: Back when we spoke to Marc Webb about that ominous Amazing Spider-Man mid-credits sequence, many hardcore fans instantly started speculating that it was The Gentleman who showed up in Curt Connors' prison cell, asking about Peter Parker. Given Webb's not-so-subtle tease, that may in fact prove to be the case.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Gentleman (Sinister Six)

We already know that Sony and Marc Webb have plans for two more Spider-Man films leading into 2018. Obviously, 2018 is a ways away, so anything could happen between then and now. If The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were to flop horribly at the box office, we'd probably never see Webb's vision play out in theaters.

But that amount of foresight is also indicative of long-term plot planning - the kind that might introduce a bunch of villainous characters throughout several movies before bringing them together against your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

What do you think, Screen Ranters? Do you want to see the Sinister Six adapted for the big screen? Or do you think six supervillains is five too many? Drop us a line in the comments.

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The Amazing Spider-Man hits theaters May 2nd, 2014.

Follow me on Twitter @benandrewmoore.

Source: Movies.com & Crave Online