According to Dane DeHaan, a Sinister Six movie was in development at Sony before their deal with Disney went through. Sony's held onto the rights to Spider-Man and his supporting characters for years now, and the studio once aimed to create an expanded Spider-Man universe. To begin, Sony rebooted the character with 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, which then got a follow-up in 2014 with The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The presence of DeHaan's Harry Osborn/the Green Goblin, as well as a post-credits scene, teased the future arrival of the Sinister Six. In the comics, the Six are a group of supervillains who each want to take down Spider-Man.
Following the lackluster performance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, however, Sinister Six began to languish in development. Director Drew Goddard was still optimistic about the film's chances, but things got more complicated when Sony struck a deal with Disney. Through that deal, the two studios would partner up on Spider-Man films set in the MCU, which would then allow the fan-favorite character to finally join the franchise. Sony still has the freedom to create other Spider-Man-adjacent films, hence the creation of Venom and Morbius.
While speaking to Collider about his new Quibi series The Stranger, DeHaan delved a bit into his time as Harry Osborn, as well as the future plans that never came to fruition. While DeHaan didn't exactly know where Harry's story would have gone, he did know that "there definitely would have been a Sinister Six element to it," and that all the talks took place before the Sony/Disney deal went into place. DeHaan's full comments are below:
Not necessarily. I think it’s pretty obvious they were all setting up for like a Sinister Six kind of situation and there was certainly talk of doing all that before all the Disney, Marvel stuff happened. But I can’t tell you I know specifically what it was gonna be. I just know that there definitely would have been a Sinister Six element to it. And, you know, at least the Goblin, if not Harry Osborne would have been involved.
Sony still has hopes for Sinister Six, with producer Amy Pascal even saying just last year that nearly enough Spider-Man villains have been established in the MCU to create the group. Both Vulture (Michael Keaton) and Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) have appeared in the MCU, as well as a handful of other smaller Spider-Man antagonists. Additionally, Sony has continued to make their own Spidey-universe films, with Morbius and Venom 2 on the way. Keaton's Vulture is set to appear in Morbius, which could help bridge the gap between the two universes.
If Sinister Six ever comes about, it likely won't be exactly in the way Sony originally envisioned it. The post-credits scene for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 suggested a different lineup of villains, though Vulture and Mysterio were included. Whether Sinister Six is ever set directly in the MCU is unclear, but part of the foundation is already there (aside from Mysterio currently being dead). Maybe the highly-anticipated Spider-Man 3 will give more insight into the future of Sinister Six.
Source: Collider
