Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Teases the Sinister Six's Debut

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse indeed lives up to its title, by taking viewers on a journey that extends across decades of Spider-Man media – from the movies to the TV shows, comic books, video games, and all the international exports of the character in between. 

Across the Spider-Verse also does a solid job of deftly setting Sony up for a lucrative future building a Spider-Man Universe of numerous spinoff films and franchises. In fact, Across the Spider-Verse may have slipped one major franchise debut past a lot of fans, as the film is the first official namedrop of The Sinister Six! 

(WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW) 

The final act of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sees Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) rebel against Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) and the agenda of the Spider Society of Spider-Verse protectors. Miles battles Miguel and his army of Spider-Man variants and sneaks his way into their multiversal transport machine to get back to his home dimension. However, Miguel intercepts Miles at the last minute and messes up the machine's process, resulting in Miles ending up in a very different reality: Earth-42. 

Sinister Six of Earth-42

The reality of Earth-42 is the one that Miles learns is the home dimension of the spider that bit him, giving him his powers. Miguel revealed to Miles that he is an anomaly that was never meant to be, and that his Spider-Man origin (Kingpin causing a multiversal disruption) came at the cost of an entire other universe's well-being. When Miles arrives in Earth-42, he discovers Spider-Man 2099 wasn't lying. The world is one where Spider-Man was never created; the world is sunken in darkness, crime, and conflict, and the Miles Morales of that world has become the ruthless criminal known as The Prowler. 

Miles gets captured by his Uncle Aaron and is left at the mercy of his variant self. However, an Earth-42 TV broadcast in the background of one scene illustrates the crime-ridden nature of this new world, by telling us that the Sinister Six is still on the loose in NYC. 

What Is The Sinister Six?

The Sinister Six is a villain team that was formed by various Spider-Man villains coming together to take down the Wall Crawler and pull off their own robbery and/or world-threatening schemes. Though the roster changes, the team is (obviously) six in number. 

Sony has been trying to get a Sinister Six project off the ground since Andrew Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man films came out. In fact, by 2014 Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods, Cloverfield) was attached to direct a Sinister Six movie – one that was directly teased in the final moments and credits of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Obviously, that spinoff never happened (neither did Amazing Spider-Man 3), and the Sinister Six property has been in limbo ever since. 

...Even more reason why it seems significant for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to be name-dropping the group now.