The end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 let audiences know that something very big and very bad is on its way to make Peter Parker’s life even worse. Last week Sony officially confirmed that a Spider-Man spinoff, The Sinister Six, will be coming to theaters in November 2016. The potential of seeing a team made up of Spidey’s greatest foes on the big screen has been met by fans with excitement… and a bit of concern.
While Marvel and Disney had a huge hit with the superhero team-up movie The Avengers and Warner Bros. will follow suit in 2017 with Justice League, a live action movie in which a half-dozen supervillains team up against one hero has never been attempted before. Fans may love seeing superheroes battle against impossible odds in the comics, but can that work on the movie screen without it seeming like villain overkill? While Sony is eager to expand its Spider-Man franchise the way Marvel has with The Avengers universe and Fox has with the X-Men universe, have the studio and writer/director Drew Goddard thought about how this might actually hurt the franchise?
Here are ten reasons why introducing the Sinister Six might be a bad idea for Sony’s Spider-Man franchise.
10. Didn’t Spider-Man 3 already have too many villains?
One of the major complaints about Spider-Man 3 (and there are many) is that it features three villains. While many comic book movies have featured two villains, most superhero filmmakers have accepted that more than two villains in a movie leads to too many subplots. Even The Avengers, which features six established heroes, only features one established supervillain so the movie could focus on the origin of the team and not of individual characters.
The Sinister Six would feature double of what already proved to be an unwieldy number of villains in a Spider-Man movie. While the origins of expected members Green Goblin and Rhino have already been revealed, the big screen team is rumored to include Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter. That would mean that The Sinister Six would feature four villain origins in addition to covering the origin of the group as a whole. That’s a lot of narrative threads for one movie.
9. Are villains like Kraven the Hunter or Vulture even movie-worthy?
Director Sam Raimi intended to use The Vulture as one of the villains of Spider-Man 3. However, producer Avi Arad convinced Raimi to use Venom instead because Venom is a far more popular character. When Raimi was working on Spider-Man 4 (which obviously never made it past pre-production), he again considered using Vulture as a villain. With Vulture’s wings being seen at Oscorp at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it’s expected that Vulture will finally make it on screen as a member of the Sinister Six.
Raimi’s woes in trying to use Vulture in a movie indicates that an old man with wings really isn’t the flashiest of Spider-Man foes. The same goes for other possible members like Kraven the Hunter, who isn’t a marquee character either.
There is a reason why the Batman movies haven’t dug deeper into the Caped Crusader’s extensive rogues’ gallery beyond Mister Freeze and Poison Ivy (and we saw how they turned out). Putting Vulture and Kraven in the same movie as more compelling characters like Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin might make the former villains look even more second-rate. Furthermore, using too many dull characters might actually drag down the group instead of making it seem more menacing.
8. Why are these particular villains the members?
Though the group might be known as the Sinister Six, many supervillains have cycled in and out of the lineup over the group’s forty year history. In fact, there have been expanded versions of the group known as the Sinister Seven, the Sinister Sixteen, and the Sinister Twelve (the writer of that issue obviously doesn’t get the concept of alliteration).
In all, about three dozen supervillains have been in some version of the Sinister Six. While some characters are mainstays of the group (Doctor Octopus, Electro, Mysterio, Sandman and Vulture), the filmmakers will have to be selective on who will be included in the movie version of the team. Their choices are bound to annoy some fans who have their hearts set on seeing a specific Spider-Man villain on the team. Since the movie version is sure to include Green Goblin and Rhino, some fans might just reject it since that already strays from the original roster in the comics.
Of course, more importantly than who makes the team is why these specific characters will be chosen. If the team doesn’t feature the absolute right combination of powers and personalities, it won’t lead to an interesting story.
7. What are their goals?
While the Sinister Six’s goal in the comics is usually to kill Spider-Man (which seems to be the goal of every villain in the Spider-Man movies), in The Sinister Six they will have to have some other objective since the movie would need to be about more than just them plotting to kill the web-slinger. So what is it?
The Spider-Man character (and movies) is very street-level and New York City-centric, so world domination wouldn’t be in the cards. Harry Osborn is a millionaire already, so knocking off banks is probably out. If they are stealing something or trying to take over the city, what kind of resistance will they face if Spider-Man doesn’t have a prominent role in the spinoff?
Naturally the Sinister Six movie could feature many scenes of team members bickering with each other which could build to some awesome-looking supervillain battles, but how many times can the movie go to that before something has to happen to move the plot forward?
6. What about the Green Goblin knowing Spider-Man’s identity?
One definite member of the big screen Sinister Six (Green Goblin) already knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. So how can this be handled story-wise if the group plots to kill Spider-Man? Green Goblin knows his home address so he could simply tell Rhino to burst right through Aunt May’s door. But he can’t do that without revealing Spider-Man’s secret identity to the entire Sinister Six, something the filmmakers aren’t likely going to do.
This creates an odd dynamic within the group that will be difficult to write a story around. How will Green Goblin plot dastardly plans against Spider-Man with the rest of the Sinister Six without letting everyone in on the secret? In fact, if the plot is to destroy Spider-Man why not just blurt his identity out to every vicious criminal in Manhattan and expand the group’s membership to the Sinister Sixty-Thousand? There will need to be a logical explanation why Green Goblin is keeping a life-threatening secret about the rival he wants dead.
5. Will Doctor Octopus be reduced to a lackey?
Doctor Octopus is among Spider-Man’s archenemies and many consider him to be Spider-Man’s greatest foe. In addition, in the comics it was Doctor Octopus who brought the Sinister Six together and he is usually portrayed as the leader of the group. In other words, Otto Octavius doesn’t play second fiddle to anyone.
While it’s understandable that a “muscle” villain like Rhino would take a subservient role, Doctor Octopus is a character who has never been likely to take orders. However, the ending of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 showed Harry Osborn and Gustav Fiers forming the Sinister Six, and Doctor Octopus’ tentacles were shown at Oscorp. This vastly changes the origin of the character, who created the tentacles himself. Will Doctor Octopus be portrayed as little more than a henchman of Osborn’s? If so, that would be a waste of one of Spider-Man’s best foes.
Doctor Octopus’ new origin will need to make him look like one of the group’s heavyweights to audiences and not just one of Green Goblin’s lackeys. Sony must make sure to make Doctor Octopus look menacing individually while part of the group.
4. Doesn’t Mysterio deserve his own movie?
At least Doctor Octopus got his own movie, 2004’s Spider-Man 2. Mysterio, who is one of Spider-Man’s most famous villains, has yet to appear in any of the five Spider-Man movies. This is despite the fact that Mysterio has a perfect origin for a movie: he’s a disgruntled movie stunt man and special effects genius who uses his expertise to commit crimes and mess with Spider-Man’s head.
There is so much that could be done with a character with a movie-based origin like Mysterio, and his illusions could break down Spider-Man’s psyche in a way that hasn’t been done in the five previous Spider-Man films. Imagine Mysterio using his skill with illusions to convince the web-slinger that his parents or Gwen Stacy are still alive? On top of that, Mysterio has one of the most distinctive appearances in comics, and even if filmmakers don’t want to use the white ping-pong ball look his movie costume design would probably look awesome.
Mysterio deserves better than being introduced in the Spider-Man movies as a supporting villain. If he gets portrayed like one of Green Goblin’s henchmen or gets a rushed origin it would be another waste of one of Spider-Man’s best villains.
3. What about other interesting villains?
Before Sony pits Spider-Man against six villains in one movie, what about all of the other great Spider-Man villains that haven’t been utilized in movies? Do audiences really want to see yet another Spider-Man movie that features Peter Parker against Harry Osborn?
Besides, Sony has already laid the foundations for other villains. Alistair Smythe, one of the creators of the Spider-Slayer robots, has already popped up in his pre-villain form in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 played by B.J. Novak, as did Black Cat as the Oscorp secretary Felicia, played by Felicity Jones. Norman Osborn also appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, so seeds of him becoming the Green Goblin in a future movie have also been planted (after all, he didn’t die on-camera, which opens up all sorts of opportunities). Plenty of other great Spider-Man villains like Chameleon have yet to appear in a Spider-Man movie. Sony could even try using Kingpin just to stick it to Marvel (though Kingpin will be used as the main villain of the Daredevil Netflix series, the character was originally created as a Spider-Man villain and might fall into the same territory as Quicksilver where two studios can use the character).
And while he’s not exactly a villain, we still haven’t seen J. Jonah Jameson in the new series. In other words, there is no shortage of Spider-Man foes that we haven’t even seen in a movie yet, so why should Sony go all-out when there are still so many options left?
2. Where would the Spider-Man franchise go from there?
Once we see Spider-Man defeat six of his worst enemies on screen, how can Sony top that in the next movie? The general idea for superhero movie sequels is that they have to be bigger and better than the previous one. While Marvel’s Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier still did extremely well at the box office after The Avengers, those Marvel movies offer a variety of characters and thematic styles. There already have been five Spider-Man movies with mostly similar tones, and with The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and the Sinister Six and Venom spinoffs there will be three more before the end of the decade. That’s a lot of movies based off one superhero.
When will audiences finally get their fill of Spider-Man movies? It might have already happened. The downward trend is concerning because these movies aren’t getting any cheaper to make. A Spider-Man movie in which he faces six villains might pique the interests of audiences enough to turn the box office tide once, but if Sony can’t follow that up with something even bigger it might kill the current franchise. And does anybody really want to see another Spider-Man reboot?
1. Do people want to see a Sinister Six movie with little to no Spider-Man in it?
As far as we know, Andrew Garfield is only signed to play Spider-Man in one more movie, which presumably is 2018’s The Amazing Spider-Man 3. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t appear in The Sinister Six, but it does complicate the situation for Sony. Sony might sign Garfield to appear as Spider-Man in a cameo or supporting role in The Sinister Six, or Sony could avoid the issue altogether and not even include Spider-Man in the film at all. But the clock is ticking — Garfield will turn 33 in 2016 and might not even want to do another Spider-Man related movie after that.
Regardless of how much (or how little) Spider-Man is included in The Sinister Six, he won’t be the main character of the spinoff. Sony is probably going to have a lot of trouble trying to sell a Spider-Man movie to audiences that might not have much Spider-Man in it, especially to the young audience and families that flock to Spider-Man movies. It’ll be even harder if audiences don’t connect with this crop of new villains or if it’s a new actor in the suit.
Though they have been discussed, no studio has ever made a movie with a villain as the protagonist before, even with much more popular villains like The Joker, Magneto, or Loki. That doesn’t mean one wouldn’t work, but Sony will have to pull off something that hasn’t even been attempted before. Can it be done, and do audiences even want to see it?
What are your thoughts on The Sinister Six? Is Sony making a move it might regret? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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