Sony's Spider-Man Needs the Sinister Six

If Sony wants a promising live-action future with comic book characters on the big screen, the Sinister Six is a safe bet, and the threatening team of Spider-Man villains should appear sooner rather than later. In fact, the grim group is virtually already assembled!

The studio's upcoming animated comic book universe appears to be a guaranteed hit. With the recent Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse trailer, it's crystal clear that Sony has the potential to give fans a terrific animated universe that's packed with fan service. Full of cameos and the possibility to explore multiple universes, the future looks very bright for Sony's animated cinematic universe.

The live-action front - the Venom-verse - has a far more questionable future, though.

Actor Woody Harrelson confirmed there are plans to give the upcoming live-action Venom movie a sequel, but only time will tell whether or not the symbiote's first solo movie gives Sony's Venom-verse a successful launch and justifies creating an follow-up films. To make matters less optimistic for the studio's live-action front, one of the most talked-about Venom-verse spin-off films, Silver & Black, has been delayed indefinitely.

The future of Sony's live-action Venom-verse is definitely uncertain at this point, but the studio has a sure-fire hit on its hands with Tom Holland's version of Spider-Man web-slinging around in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One way to ensure the Homecoming series continues to feels different from previous live-action Spidey incarnations while also generating excitement from fans is to successfully and finally move forward with the classic team of Spider-Man foes. After all, better late than never, right?

The world was already denied a cinematic version of the Sinister Six - now it's time to fix that mistake. With the Amazing Spider-Man franchise, Sony failed to successfully buildup to the iconic team of villains. The franchise was clearly heading in that direction and even had plans to give the team their own diabolical spinoff, but the franchise wasn't able to become nearly as successful as it could have been.

The Amazing Spider-Man's path to the Sinister Six suffered from a convoluted bigger picture involving the Osborn family, an unclear approach to building the team, and rushed big events, like the death of Gwen Stacy. The Spider-Man: Homecoming franchise doesn't have any of these problems, and the first movie has already laid the foundation for the group - half of the team already exists!

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In Homecoming, Vulture, Shocker, and Gargan (who can easily become the Scorpion after a quick meeting with Homecoming's Tinkerer) are already connected. To top it off, the reason behind the Sinister Six's formation is already there: they share a common enemy. While this team only has one of the original comic book roster's members (Vulture), it's obvious that these films are only inspired by the source material, not direct adaptations of it.

The reality is, a comics-accurate roster isn't a realistic expectation, nor should it be. Michael Keaton's memorable debut as the Vulture would absolutely justify placing him as the one to form and lead this team of terrible people, after ll. It would be a refreshing change in direction to not focus on another live-action Green Goblin arc.

To make matters even more promising, it's reported that Mysterio - one of the Sinister Six's original members in the comics - will be played by actor Jake Gyllenhaal in the untitled Homecoming sequel. Considering how well the first movie incorporated multiple villains while teasing others like the Prowler, well, it's not at all far-fetched to believe that Homecoming's follow-up will accomplish the same thing, offering enough enemies to complete the first cinematic version of the Sinister Six's roster.

From there, it's simply a matter of having the first three villains meet the new ones, and that shouldn't be difficult if they end up in the same prison or if they're linked through Gargan. After all, Gargan did say he has people on the outside who would love to go after Spidey...

The success of Sony's Spider-Man villains and supporting characters in the Venom-verse - which appears to not include Spider-Man himself - is currently up in the air. Maybe it'll be a hit and the start of a promising new universe for Sony, maybe it won't be.

However, the success of Sony's Sinister Six in the Homecoming franchise is not only a safe bet at the box office, it's also a major dose of fan service for Spider-Man fans who have been waiting for years to finally see Spider-Man take on an entire team of his villains on the big screen. Getting Sinister Six on the big screen sooner rather than later should be a no-brainer for Sony.

Hitting theaters in 2019, the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel is directed by Jon Watts and will star Tom Holland as Peter Parker.