Sinister Six Movie: Who Will Be the Stars?

One of the strangest things about the fact that Sony has announced plans to make a feature film based on the Spider-Man villains known as the Sinister Six is, of course, that there are fewer than six Spider-Man villains currently appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise. Even if you take as a given that the three villains driving the plot in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 have already been introduced, which they technically haven't, that's still just four guys, and leaves two slots on the team open...assuming all four survive the next movie and want to team up. That's quite a few ifs. There's also the fact that the Sinister Six has always been a team with a revolving lineup--something that leaves the filmmakers with a lot of choices and the fans with a lot of questions. Who are the possible recruits? We've assembled a list below of who we think are the most likely candidates, but bear in mind this is just us trying to put the pieces together for a puzzle that seems to be moving while we work. Honorable mention goes out to the Six members we didn't include, but who could easily still show up, such as Hobgoblin, Gog, Beetle, Chameleon, Hydro-Man, Hammerhead, Boomerang, Tombstone, Grim Reaper, Trapster, Overdrive, Speed Demon and Living Brain.

Kind of an obvious choice, in that he's the first villain this new Spider-Man faced. Still, Dr. Connors is generally a good guy when he's not in Lizard mode, and when he is, he's proven to be a difficult guy to work with (just ask Dr. Ratha).

The Rhino It seems as though, in spite of his animal-themed name and the Rhino Easter egg we saw in The Amazing Spider-Man, Paul Giamatti's character from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is one of the few villains not tied directly to Oscorp in the new film, owing his armor to Alistair Smythe and having no powers of his own. That suggests to us he might not be the strongest candidate for the team, since he has no sense of "community" with the other members. Green Goblin It's hard to say just what to expect from the Green Goblin. A frequent member of the team in the comics and Spidey's arch-nemesis, his whole story seems to have been thrown up in the air a bit in this movie, with Norman Osborn never taking on the role before his son does...and something gives me the feeling Harry might not make it out of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 alive and undamaged.

Electro Provided he survives the second film, he's probably a lock. One of the founding members of the Six in the comics and one of its most regular members, Electro is also played by a marquee name and an Academy Award-winning actor who's reportedly locked into a multi-picture deal. Could they have lured Jamie Foxx into the franchise by promising him a lead role in the first-ever supervillain team-up movie?

Venom There's a distinct possibility, but it's probably unlikely. If he's going to have his own movie, it seems unlikely that he'd be in Sinister Six as well; it's already pretty likely that Spider-Man will end up making at least a cameo in these films; the more heavy lifting you have to do to make the shared universe work, the more precarious that universe becomes. He's been part of the team before--when they were the Sinister Twelve, there was a version of Venom where the symbiote had bonded with classic Spidey villain Scorpion.

Sandman After having just used the character in Spider-Man 3 (and having had it not work), it seems hard to believe they'd bring him back...but who knows? He was a founding member of the Six, one of the most regular members of the team and the one who tends to have that not-so-evil edge to him, as though he might go straight if circumstances allowed it.  The other two villains from Spider-Man 3 (Venom and Harry Osborn) are also back in the new franchise, so maybe that's not such a liability...but the whole animal-human hybrid thing that drove so much of Richard Parker's experimentation isn't really applicable here, so he might not "fit."

Shocker Well, we know from The Daily Bugle that The Shocker exists in the Amazing universe, but again, his gimmick doesn't seem to fit in all that well with the other Spidey villains seen here. So will he be a big player, a background reference or a throwaway for Spidey to fight en route to the big bads, like Scarecrow in The Dark Knight? And either way--does the fact that he simply exists here mean he's a good candidate for the Six? We'll say no, but we could easily be convinced.

Mysterio There's been some speculation that the Man in the Hat could be Mystery (or Morlun), and if so it seems a given we'll see him involved. Whatever that dude's role is, it seems clear from his visit to The Lizard and his time in the Oscorp lab where they're keeping Vulture wings and Dr. Octopus arms that he's going to be key to putting the team together. Why do we lump him in as Mysterio? Well, becuase we don't have a better idea, and because Mysterio is one of the only founding members of the team who doesn't already have an easy introduction into the Amazing universe. If it turns out this dude isn't Mysterio, but either someone else or just a guy in a hat, the observations above still hold for the hatted man, but Mysterio becomes perhaps less likely because there's no sign of him yet. The Vulture Extremely likely; he's a founding member; he's not quite cool enough to be the central antagonist of his own film; his wings are teased in the ASM2 trailer and the image above. Dr. Octopus Teased in the same shot from the trailer as The Vulture, the only thing that would keep Doc Ock from being a major player in the film is if he were going to be the villain in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. As arguably Spider-Man's most notorious foe besides Green Goblin, giving him that slot might make more sense for the filmmakers.

Kraven the Hunter A pretty solid choice. Always a fan-favorite villain for Spidey, Kraven was given an easy in to the Amazing universe by his Ultimate Spider-Man origin, wherein he's basically a reality-TV bounty hunter who sees Spider-Man and his animal-themed villains as the ultimate hunt. He's also The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield's choice for a villain he'd like to go up against, and a founding member of the Six in the comics. And a key player in the Ultimate Spider-Man (cartoon) version of the Six, which is composed of Kraven, Lizard, Electro, Beetle, Rhino and Doc Ock. Come to think of it, that lineup isn't totally unrealistic for the film...