Is Spider-Man 3 a Spider-Verse Sinister Six Movie?

Sony has long had plans in the works for a Sinister Six movie, with the franchise destroying Amazing Spider-Man 2 serving as little more than an extended commercial for a villain team-up movie that would never come to pass. With Marvel and Sony partnering to create new (and wildly successful) Spider-Man movies, their approach thus far has been to avoid villains who already had turns in live action, whether through Sam Raimi’s trilogy or the maligned Amazing films. It’s an approach that has made household names out of baddies like Vulture and Mysterio, but hasn’t come close to allowing Sony to scratch their Sinister Six movie itch.

Sony’s solution to this looks like plucking villains from each discrete film universe.

Molina returns as Doctor Octopus from the Raimi films. He is so far the only live-action Doctor Octopus, but he’s also widely regarded as one of the greatest comic book movie villains of all time. He is, as of now, the only returning cast member from the Raimi films announced (Toby Maguire has been rumored, and honestly seems likely at this point, but nothing is set in stone). Doc Ock is also probably the only required member of the Sinister Six: he is the founder of the original comics version, and in the main Marvel comics universe, he is nearly its most frequent member through more than a dozen incarnations.

In fact, the only person to appear on more Sinister Sixes than Doc Ock is Electro. Jamie Foxx joins this movie from the Marc Webb films. Foxx’s performance was…much worse…than Molina’s, but he’s a capable actor, so who knows if he’ll do better here. Electro is one of Spidey’s best villains because of how he reflects the hero back on himself: Max Dillon was a regular guy, a lineworker for the power company who got powers from a freak electrical storm, and turned to crime after.

The other most common members of the Sinister Six have also all appeared on film and spread through the various franchises (with one notable exception). Sinister Sixes usually feature Mysterio, Vulture, and Sandman as part of the lineup. Mysterio and Vulture have both been featured villains in the MCU Spidey films (played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Keaton, respectively), and Sandman was played by Thomas Hayden Church in Raimi’s third Spidey installment. Were this Spider-Man 3 to really go for it, it could easily bring those three villains back.