Spider-Man Spinoff Film The Sinister Six May Still Happen

The sheer number of superhero movies being released over the next few years means that it's easy to forget some of the casualties that have occurred along the way. One of those was The Sinister Six, a spinoff from Sony's Amazing Spider-Man movies, that was postponed indefinitely when the studio struck a deal with Marvel Studios to reboot the Spider-Man films.

Now writer/director Drew Goddard has revealed that he believes his script for the movie could still fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As he explained in an interview with io9, his Sinister Six was very much a standalone story.

"My vision of that movie was a summer annual," he said. "So you didn't have to worry about continuity. It was just, 'We take Peter, put him on an adventure, we put him back in his life.' I intentionally wanted a movie that didn't have to worry about mythology and continuity.

"It was important to me to make a movie that could stand on its own. So the good news is, you know, it slots in very well to any plan anybody ever wants. We just need to let a couple years go by, I think."

Goddard has himself worked with Marvel on their Netflix hit Daredevil, and while an appearance in 2016's Captain America: Civil War and the standalone 2017 movie are to be the webslinger's first cinematic appearances for Marvel, it's clear that The Sinister Six is not necessarily dead.

The Sinister Six are a group of supervillains, each of them one of Spider-Man's arch-enemies. Originally organised by Doctor Octopus, they first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 in 1964.

The closing scene of 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 set up the spinoff film; however, its underwhelming box office led to the deal that would allow Spider-Man to appear in Marvel's own films. Despite the disappointment of the postponement, Goddard explains that as a fan it made perfect sense.

"I love that you get to see Spider-Man in Marvel movies," he said. "I think that's a great thing. I'm on board with that decision because as a fan that's what I want. So who knows what the future holds? This is Hollywood, man, you've gotta play the long game."