It’s been six years since the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and clearly the titular hero is in a completely different place right now, but it’s still tough not to wonder what would have been for that iteration of the franchise. 

The first Amazing Spider-Man movie debuted to a somewhat positive response and a grand total of $758 million at the worldwide box office. While the sequel wasn’t as widely beloved, it did manage to make a little over $700 million during its theatrical run. But, the thing is, even before that movie hit theaters, reports were already surfacing about Sony’s massive plans for the franchise's future, which included a Sinister Six movie to be directed by Drew Goddard. At one point, that film even scored a November 11, 2016 release date. But of course, then news broke that Sony Pictures and Marvel were teaming for a new Spider-Man movie, essentially calling all of Sony’s previously announced plans into question.

Now that we’ve spent a good deal of time with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the MCU, it’s pretty clear that this major course correction was for the better, but that Sinister Six idea did have loads of potential. A movie with (Hob/Green) Goblin, Vulture, Rhino, and Doc Ock at least? Yeah, that would have been exciting. And it could have been a great opportunity for Dane DeHaan to build on what he started in Amazing Spider-Man 2 playing Harry Osborn, aka the Green Goblin.

While catching up with DeHaan for his new Quibi “movie in chapters,” The Stranger, he was kind enough to take a little time to talk about past and future projects, Sinister Six included. When I asked if he knew any of the specifics on where Harry’s arc would have taken him, here’s what he said:

“Not necessarily. I think it's pretty obvious they were all setting up for like a Sinister Six kind of situation and there was certainly talk of doing all that before all the Disney, Marvel stuff happened. But I can't tell you I know specifically what it was gonna be. I just know that there definitely would have been a Sinister Six element to it. And, you know, at least the Goblin, if not Harry Osborne would have been involved.”

So yes, Sinister Six plans were certainly in motion but perhaps the project never got far along enough for DeHaan to get the details on what the plans were for Harry. While it seems incredibly unlikely that this original version of the Sinister Six movie will ever happen, producer Amy Pascal did express interest in it again back in December of 2018. But since then, Pascal signed that first-look deal with Universal Pictures. She’s still involved in the Spider-Man movies, but between focusing a good deal of her attention elsewhere and the MCU doing its thing, I’m not holding out hope we’ll ever get to see Goddard’s Sinister Six. The possibility of Goddard spearheading a different Marvel movie, however? I'm all for it.

Look for my full interview with DeHaan on Collider soon.