7 Ways That Spider-Man: Homecoming Sets Up Future Movies

2) The Sinister Six Are Coming

As we outlined before, the mid-credits scene of Spider-Man: Homecoming might just be the impetus for the introduction of something that’s been long in the making.

The scene sees Adrian Toomes in jail, where he’s approached by old buddy Mac Gargan (the Scorpion in the comics). Gargan tells him he has “boys on the outside who would love to slit [Spider-Man’s] throat.”

We might be reading into this too much, but the idea of Scorpion teaming up with some fellow criminal buddies to take on Spidey brings to mind only one thing: the Sinister Six. Usually formed by Doctor Octopus, the Six are a continually changing roster of Peter Parker’s enemies who team up to defeat him. The group was heavily teased in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, ahead of a planned spinoff film, before the unceremonious cancellation of that franchise.

With Sony still involved with the filmmaking process, though, it makes sense that they would push for Marvel to include the Sinister Six. Director Jon Watts has said that the villain of the sequel is still up in the air, but this could just be a way of saying that they don’t know which six foes will turn up. With Vulture, Shocker and Scorpion (not to mention the Tinkerer and the Prowler, too) appearing in this first film, it’s not as if too many new villains would need to be introduced for this to work.