A Sinister Six movie is still possible and now more than ever thanks to the characters introduced in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and those arriving in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and this time, this team of supervillains can finally succeed after many failures. The superhero genre has been dominating the entertainment industry in recent years and a big part of that success is thanks to connected universes like the MCU and DC Extended Universe. However, Sony didn’t want to stay behind, and it has been working on its own superhero universe, now named Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, since 2018 with Venom.
Sony is no stranger to superhero movies, as it’s the studio that brought Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy in the early 2000s and later Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies in 2012 and 2014. Sony later made a deal with Marvel so Spider-Man (now played by Tom Holland) could be part of the MCU and also of Sony’s universe, though he hasn’t appeared in the latter yet. However, Sony has been working on building its universe of Marvel characters beginning with Venom in 2018. The studio is set to bring Morbius and Kraven the Hunter to the big screen as well, and all these characters, along with those joining Spider-Man’s third solo adventure over at the MCU, have made viewers believe a Sinister Six movie is getting closer and will finally happen.
The Sinister Six is a team of supervillains formed by Spider-Man enemies, with the original team formed by Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Electro, Mysterio, Sandman, and Kraven. A Sinister Six movie has been in development for years now, but it has encountered different obstacles that have delayed and almost canceled the project a couple of times. Fans are more hopeful now than ever that the long-awaited Sinister Six movie will finally happen now that many potential members have been introduced in both the MCU and Sony’s universe, and this is the best moment for the Sinister Six after all their past failures.
Why Sony’s Sinister Six Plans Failed Before
Plans for a Sinister Six movie began in 2013 when Sony announced plans for two spin-offs of The Amazing Spider-Man: Venom and The Sinister Six. After the failure of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, Sony put aside plans for a fourth movie and instead chose to reboot this universe with The Amazing Spider-Man. Unfortunately, this new take on the web-slinger wasn’t the big success the studio expected, and so more Amazing Spider-Man movies, along with most of the spinoffs announced and planned, were canceled. The Sinister Six project went as far as to have Drew Goddard attached as writer and director, and the end credits of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 even set up their arrival and introduced a line-up consisting of Rhino, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, and Kraven, with the Green Goblin serving as the leader.
The Sinister Six was announced to be released in 2016, but the announcement of the Sony/Marvel deal in 2015 to bring Spider-Man to the MCU put an end to most of the Amazing Spider-Man spinoffs, with others like Venom and the Sinister Six being put on hold. In December 2018, producer Amy Pascal confirmed there’s still interest in bringing the Sinister Six to the big screen, so fans are patiently waiting for a confirmation on it as well as where it would take place: the MCU or Sony’s universe.
How Sony’s Sinister Six Approach Is Now Different
As mentioned above, plans for a Sinister Six movie began as a spinoff of The Amazing Spider-Man, and by the time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released and the Sinister Six lineup was teased, only Rhino had been properly introduced. Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin were introduced in Raimi’s trilogy, Vulture and Mysterio made their debut in the MCU’S Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, respectively, while Kraven is yet to be introduced. The current approach to the Sinister Six is to introduce the potential members separately, with characters like Venom, Morbius, and Kraven getting their solo movies, Vulture and Scorpion (Michael Mando) were introduced in Homecoming, and Doctor Octopus (and possibly the Green Goblin as well) is coming back in Spider-Man: No Way Home. This makes it easier to team them up in a Sinister Six movie as they already have a history, the audience is familiar with them, and they already have a past with Spider-Man (most of them, at least. As Venom and Morbius are yet to meet the web-slinger), which will be the one detail that brings them together.
Why Sony’s New Sinister Six Plan Is More Likely To Be A Success
Sony is already doing things differently with the Sinister Six than when the project was a spinoff of The Amazing Spider-Man, giving each of its potential members a separate introduction and history with Spider-Man, instead of introducing them in the same movie where they are supposed to team up. This is a huge step in the right direction as fans now know what to expect from each character as well as their motivations and backstory with Spider-Man and it avoids rushing through their backstories and overpacking the movie. Another detail that leads the Sinister Six to success this time is that the project is no longer attached to the success of other movies and even if the Sony/Marvel deal fell through, Sony could still find a way to make the Sinister Six happen in its own universe thanks to the characters it can use.
What Could Still Go Wrong With Sony’s Sinister Six Plan
Perhaps the biggest problem the Sinister Six could face is how to handle all these big personalities in just one movie, and Sony doesn’t have a good record when it comes to too many villains. Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 has been endlessly criticized for having too many villains (New Goblin, Sandman, and Venom), and the same happened with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Electro, Green Goblin, and Rhino), so Sony would have to be really careful with how it handles a movie centered on a team of supervillains. When it comes to behind-the-scenes reasons, the biggest potential problem the Sinister Six could face is the lawsuit between Marvel and the heirs of Stan Lee, Gene Colan, and Steve Ditko over the use of various characters, as this could mean their sudden departure from their cinematic universes, which could put the project on hold once again.
However, the future of the Sinister Six looks a lot brighter now than it did a couple of years ago, when the project was trapped in limbo and most of the characters hadn’t even been introduced yet, and now it’s only a matter of waiting for Sony and Marvel to confirm that the movie will happen and in which universe it will be set.
