Drew Goddard Wrote 'Sinister Six' Inspired By Marvel's Old Summer Annuals

Not so long ago, in 2014, Drew Goddard was working on Marvel's Daredevil, and scheduled to write and direct Sinister Six for Sony. That was before the Sony email hack, and the new plan for Spider-Man to be produced by Marvel, and a host of other events and decisions.

Goddard is no longer making the Sinister Six movie because that movie is no longer happening. But the plan for that film, which he calls "the giant, epic Spider-Man movie of my dreams," was originally set to have it take place somewhat outside movie continuity, and Goddard says it could be revived if Marvel and Sony want it. 

Germain at io9 talked to Goddard about his work on The Martian, and the talk turned to Sinister Six.

The writer/director said,

My vision of that movie was a summer annual. So you didn't have to worry about continuity. It was just, 'We take Peter, put him on an adventure, we put him back in his life.' I intentionally wanted a movie that didn't have to worry about mythology and continuity. It was important to me to make a movie that could stand on its own. So the good news is, you know, [laughs], it slots in very well to any plan anybody ever wants. We just need to let a couple years go by, I think.

Marvel's double-sized Annuals, evolved out of summer-based "King-Sized Specials," could be dicey propositions. Sometimes, before the trend of annual universe-shaking crossovers began, they'd be great one-off stories, such as the ones drawn by Arthur Adams for Uncanny X-Men annuals, or the early Spider-Man annuals. Other times, they'd be bundles of fun but mostly disposable stories that felt like second string efforts or, at times, experimental material.

In fact, the first comic book appearance of the Sinister Six was in the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual, from 1964.

For a movie, especially one in the current landscape, the idea of a film based on the old Annual structure is neat. Film series were once fairly loose with continuity, and are now almost too-tightly shackled to a timeline. To make a story concept work, it has to fit within a larger framework, whether that works or not. The Annual inspiration Goddard mentions might be a good way around that.