Canceled SINISTER SIX Concept Art Sends Spider-Man Into Marvel’s Savage Land
Spider-Man riding a T. Rex through Marvel’s Savage Land while battling the Sinister Six sounds like something cooked up during the wildest comic book brainstorming session imaginable. Apparently, Sony was actually considering it.
Newly shared concept art from Sony’s canceled Sinister Six movie has surfaced, giving us another fascinating look at the abandoned plans for Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man universe.
The artwork appears to show Spidey dropping toward a mysterious tropical island surrounded by missiles, and it could very well be the Savage Land, the prehistoric Marvel location that was reportedly going to play a major role in the movie.
Concept artist Victor Martinez recently shared the image on Instagram, revealing that it was created years ago for an unmade Spider-Man project. While Martinez doesn’t directly identify the movie by name, his description makes it pretty obvious which abandoned Sony project he was working on.
Martinez wrote: “Sharing with you some concept art I did for an unmade/untitled Spider-Man film from years ago. This would’ve been a fun one with lots of villains… 6 to be exact!
“Shout out to [Constantine Sekeris], who was working on the amazing costume design for Spidey – and to Production Designer [Martin Whist] who’s always fun to work with! Thanks for viewing.”
Sony began developing the Sinister Six movie as part of its plans to expand the world of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The studio was clearly thinking much bigger than another straightforward Spider-Man sequel, and some of the ideas being kicked around sound completely insane in the best possible way.
According to information revealed in the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, one of those ideas involved Spider-Man traveling to Marvel’s Savage Land and actually riding a T. Rex.
It’s difficult not to wonder what this movie would have looked like had Sony managed to pull it off. The Savage Land is one of Marvel Comics’ strangest and coolest locations, a hidden prehistoric wilderness filled with dinosaurs, dangerous creatures, advanced technology, and characters such as Ka-Zar.
Dropping Spider-Man and six supervillains into that environment could have made for one wonderfully bonkers superhero adventure.
Sony was already planting the seeds for the Sinister Six in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Andrew Garfield’s second Spider-Man movie included a sequence featuring equipment connected to several members of Spidey’s rogues gallery.
Rhino, Kraven the Hunter, and other villains were teased as the studio started assembling the pieces for its planned supervillain team-up.
The intention was to use Garfield’s Spider-Man movies as the foundation for a larger interconnected franchise, with Sinister Six becoming one of its major spinoffs. But those plans never reached the finish line.
After The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to launch the expanded universe Sony had envisioned, the studio ultimately changed direction and struck a deal with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Tom Holland took over as Peter Parker and made his MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War. His Spider-Man later appeared in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, while also leading four standalone Spider-Man movies.
That new direction effectively killed Sony’s original Sinister Six plans, leaving the Savage Land adventure as another fascinating superhero movie that exists only through development stories and pieces of concept art.
It’s especially fun seeing artwork like this years later because it shows just how strange Sony was apparently willing to get with Garfield’s Spider-Man universe.
A Sinister Six movie was already an ambitious swing, but throwing Marvel’s Savage Land, missiles, dinosaurs, and potentially a T. Rex-riding Spider-Man into the mix takes things to another level.
Would the movie have worked? Who knows. But I absolutely would have bought a ticket to watch Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man ride a freaking dinosaur into battle.
Somewhere out there in the multiverse, audiences got that movie. Those lucky bastards.