For the past decade, Marvel has continuously pushed the limit on just how many A-list caped crusaders a studio can fit on a movie screen. In Endgame‘s final battle alone, over 30 of Earth’s mightiest heroes stood ready to lay down their lives in order to stop Thanos and restore order to the world. However, this raises the question of when will we see Marvel properties round-up a bunch of folks who don’t play nice together. While DC has their Suicide Squad and Sony’s X-Men tackled The Brotherhood of Mutants, outside of Hydra (which while an evil organization feels unfair to call a “supergroup”), Marvel movies haven’t created a formidable organization of villains — at least not yet.
On Sept. 24, Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits theaters, and based on the new trailer, what we know about the next Spider-Man film, and even the short Morbius trailer that dropped last year, it could mark the start of a multi-dimensional Spider-Man show-off against the most iconic super-villain group in comics: the Sinister Six.
Created in 1964, The Sinister Six are an organization of six supervillains that really don’t care for Spider-Man and all his do-goodery. In the first incarnation of the group (as well as in many of the versions that follow), Doctor Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman, and Vulture are the ones to band together and take on Spidey. However, several other of Peter Parker’s foes have played a part in Sinister Six, including Rhino, Green Goblin, Lizard, Morbius, and even Eddie Brock’s Venom.
So, what makes this all seem so likely? In the upcoming Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Alfred Molina is reprising his role as Doctor Octopus, and Jamie Foxx is returning as Electro, two major players in the Sinister Six. What makes this so unusual — and exciting — is that both of these actors worked in Sony movies by different directors, featuring different Peter Parkers, leading to speculation that a multiverse event is incoming. While this might seem farfetched, Marvel Studios already has an established multiverse (Earth-616 being the most commonly used and “normal” dimension) and is seemingly leaning harder into it with WandaVision and Doctor Strange 2: In the Multiverse of Madness, the latter of which is directed by first Spider-Man director Sam Rami.
Pretty interesting, right? It gets better!
Now, unlike Spider-Man, both Let There Be Carnage and Morbius (coming early 2022) have not been invited to the MCU Phase Four parties — but both trailers prove that might not matter. In the Morbius trailer, there are two huge indicators the movie takes place in the primary MCU: graffiti on a wall calling Spider-Man a murderer (which checks out with how Spider-Man: Far From Home ends), and an appearance by an incarcerated Vulture, reprised by Spider-Man: Homecoming’s Michael Keaton.
In the trailer for Let There Be Carnage, a parallel comes in the shape of The Daily Bugle — the in-comic newspaper Spider-Man is persecuted by and works for. You see, the version of the Daily Bugle we see looks identical to the one in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series. In addition, the story shown in the newspaper in the trailer has the headline “Avengers Lose to Nightmare.” This could mean two interesting things: there is a universe where the Avengers lost, and we might see that universe in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in which Nightmare is rumored to be a villain. Oh, and did we mention Sam Raimi is directing that? This man just keeps popping up.
While director Andy Serkis said, Venom is “unaware at this point of other characters like Spider-Man,” and the studio is treating his story very separately from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he also remarked there are “little things you can pick out of it.” This leads us to believe the connections exist and will be abundant in Let There Be Carnage, and man, we can’t wait to see them.