Sinister Spinoffs: 6 Spider-Man Villains Worthy of Standalone FIlms

Between Venom, Joker, and the release of the Jared Leto-led Moribus trailer, it seems the (::extreme Stefon voice::) hottest trend in comic book movies right now is villains. As Sony looks to capitalize on what properties and characters from Marvel they still have access to, the studio will probably continue to leverage more of Spider-Man’s iconic rogue’s gallery for their future cinematic projects.

So, in honor of Morbius, we figured it’d be worthwhile to dive deep into the catalog of Spidey villains to determine who might be a worthy candidate for a spin-off flick. Considering the fact that Sony once thought spinning off Aunt May into her own movie was a good idea, no character is off-limits—but some certainly have a better foundation for a solo project than others. With those caveats in mind, here are six contenders who could fare well in a standalone project. Oh, and Sony, if you don’t have my number, you find me on Twitter.

Despite his status as a legendary villain in the Spider-Man canon, we’ve yet to get any sort of silver-screen interpretation of Kraven the Hunter (although it sounds like we might soon!). Sergei Kravinoff successfully brought Peter Parker to his knees in the infamous “Kraven’s Last Hunt” storyline—a tale written by J.M. DeMatteis and drawn by Mike Zeck in 1987 that matched The Killing Joke in terms of maturity and darker tones. Coming out of the gate with that storyline would be a tougher sell, but Sergei’s backstory is ripe for all kinds of exploration.

As the immigrant son of Soviet aristocrats, there’s plenty of current-day politics to be explored and repurposed for a 2020 audience. Or, since Kraven is significantly older than Peter, you could set it as a Cold War-era piece that sees the Kravinoff family defecting from the Soviet Union, bringing a young Sergei over to the States to grow up during the height of the Reagan administration. PETA won’t love his propensity for big game hunting, but viewers might resonate with his very specific set of morals—as Kraven prefers to hunt using his hands instead of any sort of weapon. By leaning into that morally grey area, Kraven could be positioned as an anti-hero in the eyes of an audience. End the movie with him consuming the strength-bolstering, anti-aging serum he uses in the comics and tease some sort of future conflict with Spider-Man and you’ve got a seemingly decent foundation for success.

As the Joker to Spider-Man’s Batman, Norman Osborn’s Green Goblin is one of webhead’s most terrifying enemies. A force of sheer insanity, he’s been responsible for some of Peter Parker’s most devastating losses, chief among them the death of Gwen Stacey. As the head of Oscorp, Norman devotes a considerable amount of time developing the chemical that eventually turns him mad and then into the Green Goblin.

A featured focused on good ole’ Normie (as Peter loves to call him) could focus on Osborn’s rise to power, in a Wall Street or Wolf of Wall Street kind of way, charting the rise of Oscorp itself. From there, have the tale spin into a Jekyll and Hyde situation once he takes the chemical serum and Goblin personality starts to emerge. While some of this may chart beats similar in nature to Venom, there’s enough of a business thriller aspect to Norman to make it feel of a piece unto itself.

While we’re no stranger to New York’s colossal king of crime, Netflix’s Daredevil proved Wilson Fisk aka the Kingpin was—more often than not—more compelling than the show’s titular character. Focusing exclusively on Fisk might feel like a pale imitation of the fantastic work Vincent D’Onofrio did, but there’s never been a lack of appetite around gangster genre films—especially ones set in New York City.

The success of this spin-off would, perhaps more than any other of these ideas, live or die on the lead. Since we’ve seen Kingpin several times already (whether through the Affleck Daredevil—RIP Michael Clarke Duncan—the aforementioned Netflix series, or even Into the Spider-Verse) finding an actor with a bold new approach would be necessary. Once in place, however, the story could chart a similar course to the character’s comic book origins: a bullied teen finds solace in his strength as he dives deeper into the heart of the Big Apple’s criminal underground. Have the movie end with him uniting all five boroughs into one mighty fist (shout out Gotti!) for a compelling crime caper.

In the same way that D’Onofrio is pretty much synonymous with the Kingpin, Alfred Molina’s take on Doctor Octopus was so beloved that we’ve yet to see the character return in any cinematic capacity since (I choose to ignore the cameo of his metal arms in The Amazing Spider-Man 2). The tragic story at the heart of Spider-Man 2 would be extraordinarily difficult to top, but there are a few notes in the backstory of Otto Octavius worth exploring in a larger capacity.

In comic book canon, Otto cites Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” as a source of inspiration for his four-head metallic monster, but we could see another science-fiction epic serving as a good source for inspiration. Pull from Spider-Man 2 and have Doc’s tentacles be a Frankenstein’s Monster-esque creation go awry. Play up the tragic background of Otto’s past (the death of his mother, his turbulent relationship with his father) and then slowly have the character embrace his mad tendencies and capture the power of his arms for his own dastardly schemes.

As a master of disguise, Dmitri Smerdyakov is better known as the Chameleon. Actually the half brother of Kraven the Hunter, the good ole impersonator specializes in terrorizing Spider-Man by dressing up like him and causing general havoc and mischief. But Sony could do so much with this premise: we’re thinking a movie in the style of Blumhouse’s upcoming Invisible Man remake wherein a character is being haunted by a version of themselves—only for it to be eventually revealed that it’s actually Dmitri impersonating the lead of the movie. Hell, aspects of You could even work here, with Dmitri pretending to be someone else entirely to commit crimes. Work in a recruiting scene from Norman Osborn at the end and you’ve got another addition the Secret Six—and a foe who has proven himself considerably resourceful.

Sony has been planning some version of a villainous team-up since the previously mentioned Amazing Spider-Man 2 tag back in 2014, but the shuffling of Spider-Man off to Marvel seemingly put the kibosh on the whole endeavor. At least that was the conventional wisdom until Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes shockingly—and randomly—materialized at the end of the Moribus trailer. Reading the tea leaves shows us a more clear blueprint of how Sony might web all of these disparate characters together.

Assuming Marvel is willing to let Sony use Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, the seemingly inevitable Sinister Six movie will likely include Vulture, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio (he can’t really be gone), Moribus, Venom, and two others (perhaps Bokeem Woodbine’s Shocker and Michael Mando’s Scorpion) facing off against Holland. Yet, as with all of these ideas, execution is everything and it’s paramount that Holland actually be a part of the movie; the Sinister Six’s whole founding philosophy boils down to “strength in numbers” against Spider-Man, you’d lose the impact of the premise without including the collective’s archnemesis. It’s a smart idea by Sony to leverage what IP they do have access to. After all, if you don’t have the rights to a giant superhero crossover of your own, I suppose a supervillain team-up is the next best thing.