Years ago, Sony had ambitious plans to create an entire shared universe around their ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ film franchise, back when Marc Webb was helming the franchise, with Andrew Garfield headlining. Among the projects in development was ‘Sinister Six’, which would have featured several Spider-Foes teamed up for an ‘Ocean’s 11’ style heist picture. This was even teased in the mid-credits sequence of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, as the villains’ logos were flashed on screen. But ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ was not well liked and not particularly successful at the box office.
‘Sinister Six’, which had Drew Goddard lined up to direct, was scrapped, along with ‘Venom’. Sony then struck a deal to completely overhaul the ‘Spider-Man’ brand in conjunction with Marvel Studios, which led to Tom Holland coming aboard as a teenage Peter Parker.
The reboot was a rousing success. With ‘Spider-Man’ up and swinging again, Sony revisited the idea of a spin-off and the first result was the unexpected smash ‘Venom’, which has made more than $8.5 million at the box office.
And if Sony’s Chairperson over Motion Pictures, Amy Pascal has her way, ‘Sinister Six’ won’t be far behind. But what would it take to get it made? Drew Goddard, of course.
As Pascal told Vanity Fair:
“I’m just waiting for Drew to be ready to direct it. I would do anything with Drew Goddard. I’m just waiting for him to tell me he wants to.”
Goddard developed the ‘Daredevil’ TV series for Netflix, but on the eve of production, he walked away as showrunner for the chance to direct ‘Sinister Six’. When that was scrapped… well, that must have sucked.
In early October, while promoting ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’, Goddard spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about ‘Sinister Six’ stating:
“It was really fun. I wouldn’t have done it had I not thought there was a real opportunity to do something different and exciting and just flat-out bananas. It was very much me and — a much more commercial version of — the Cabin [in the Woods] mentality. The punk rock mentality that led to Cabin is very much at the core of Sinister Six. That’s a fun one. Who knows, it could see the light of day.”
Goddard may or may not still be attached to an ‘X-Force’ movie for Fox, but he seems game to possibly, finally, bring ‘Sinister Six’ to the big screen.
With this Spidey resurgence at Sony, is ‘Sinister Six’ a project you’d still like to see?
