Has Sony’s Sinister Six Movie Been Canceled?

By all accounts, Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man franchise is in trouble. After The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to become the record-breaking smash that the studio so desperately wanted it to be, members of the “brain trust” for the franchise, including Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, have voiced concerns about whether the ambitious plans for the series can remain on track.

Though The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has grossed around $705 million worldwide in theaters, certainly a terrific number, it’s the lowest-grossing Spidey film yet (yes, even the critically reviled Spider-Man 3 topped it). Additionally, it opened beneath the Captain America and X-Men sequels, which can’t have been reassuring to Sony. Now, we’re hearing that the film’s so-called “lackluster” opening (emphasis on the sarcastic quotes around that) may have caused Sony to hit the emergency brake on its planned Sinister Six movie.

Until we hear something from someone involved with the project, this can only be considered a rumor. But, various sites have been reporting not-so-great news for Sinister Six, which Drew Goddard dropped out of Netflix and Marvel’s Daredevil series to direct. We know that the project is not a top priority for either Orci (who is consumed by Star Trek 3 right now) or Kurtzman (who is pushing forward with reboots of Universal’s classic monster movies), and Devin Faraci of Badass Digest, who interviewed Kurtzman, summed up general sentiment around the web about Sinister Six pretty well when he wrote:

“Every day that passes I hear more and more scuttlebutt that makes me think ‘Sinister Six’ is dead or dying.”

Similarly, infamous scooper El Mayimbe of Latino Review ominously tweeted this a few days ago:

RIP SINISTER SIX

— Umberto Gonzalez (@elmayimbe) July 19, 2014

Making a Sinister Six movie was certainly a risky proposition for Sony from the get-go, and the studio’s plans appeared to be dependent on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 being an absolute smash, which it was not. When The Amazing Spider-Man 3 was reportedly delayed to 2017, many of us assumed it was because Sinister Six was progressing more quickly, and that it was going to be the next Spidey film to hit theaters, setting up the villainous super-group that Spider-Man would then face in The Amazing Spider-Man 3.

A film is still set for June 10th, 2016, be it Sinister Six or The Amazing Spider-Man 3, and with news earlier this year that Sinister Six was set to begin production in January next year, it seemed like a sure thing that the Goddard-directed flick was what we’d see coming out of the Spidey-verse next.

But one of the main criticisms of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was that it shoe-horned in Sinister Six elements at the expense of narrative traction and an emotional core, so maybe Sony is reconsidering how quickly it wants to establish its superhero universe. Certainly it doesn’t want another (admittedly mild) embarrassment like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and unless Goddard has come up with a completely spectacular way to frame his film, Sinister Six is going to be a tougher sell to audiences.

It’s definitely a good thing that Sony is taking time to think about its next move (according to Faraci, the original plan for the franchise is “essentially DOA”) – though with a talented filmmaker like Goddard involved, I’m crossing my fingers that Sony doesn’t decide to scuttle the movie altogether.