Spider-Man May Be Headed To Marvel, But That Doesn’t Mean ‘Sinister Six’ Is Dead

The past year as been a tough one for Sony. Between Amazing Spider-Man 2 disappointing audiences, and the infamous hack that exposed Sony’s deepest and darkest secrets, the company has been in need of a solid turnaround. The recent announcement that Spider-Man would now merge into the Marvel Cinematic Universe did a lot to restore faith in the webslinger, but what does that mean for some of the pieces that Sony has already set in motion, such as the Sinister Six movie? Surprisingly, that one is still a possibility, to some degree.

One thing that is important to note: Marvel does not own the rights to the Spider-Man character.

Per the release that Marvel posted earlier this morning, “Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.”

As such, there will be no Spider-Man film made without Sony’s agreement. And while they are currently obligated to introduce the new Spider-Man in an upcoming Marvel film, as well as produce a standalone Spider-Man movie to be released on July 28, 2017, they are not restricted from producing their own material based on the character, or the world that he inhabits.

So what of the Sinister Six flick that was supposed to come out in late 2016? Well, according to Ben Fritz of the Wall Street Journal, plans for that iteration of the movie have been scrapped.

Update: Sony will NOT release “Sinister Six” in Nov 2016, source says. Sony delaying, rethinking, but still developing in light of new deal

— Ben Fritz (@benfritz) February 10, 2015

So while it looks like the Andrew Garfield incarnation of Spider-Man is now behind us, Sony may be looking the Sinister Six into play in a whole new way. Again, the character will be re-introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and will have his own standalone film in 2017. If Sony was still looking to bank on the character outside of Marvel’s machine, the Sinister Six may still be a way to have something of an event film outside of The Avengers.

That being said, it is important to note that the specific details between Sony and Marvel are not public, so we can’t be 100 percent sure of the restrictions, but the potential to expand outside of the standard MCU still seems to be a possibility for Sony.

But even if they are able to make a Sinister Six movie, would that be the best route to go? What do you think?