We’re used to seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home leaks and rumors drop daily, and most of them keep revealing the same spoiler that everybody knows. We’ll see three Spider-Man variants in the movie: Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield. They’ll join forces to fight against a super team of villains who also come from Sony’s old Spider-Man movies.
We’ve been calling them the Sinister Six, and we explained how only five of them have appeared in teasers. But that narrative just changed after a mind-blowing twist leaked that we definitely didn’t see coming. Mind you, No Way Home spoilers follow below, so you might want to stop reading here if you want to avoid them.
No Way Home Sinister Six villains
Before the first No Way Home trailer hit, reports said that several of the actors who played villains in previous Spider-Man movies would return. Alfred Molina confirmed over the summer that Doc Ock will jump from the Raimi universe to the MCU timeline, explaining that he’ll play the same villain.
That’s probably why Sony and Marvel showed Molina in the first trailer. It was the biggest leak, so why deny it. This implied that Maguire would also appear in the movie as the corresponding Spider-Man flavor that fought Doc Ock.
The first trailer also teased the Green Goblin, Electro, Sandman, and The Lizard. But there was no sixth villain teaser in that clip. The Empire covers that appeared a few days ago also teased four of the Sinister Six, with only The Lizard absent from them.
Reports said that Willem Dafoe, Jamie Foxx, Thomas Haden Church, and Rhys Ifans would reprise their Spider-Man villain roles. And we saw purported No Way Home images that showed Dafoe and Foxx in new costumes. Other leaks hinted that Haden Church might be back as Sandman as well.
We wondered who the sixth villain might be and explained which ones might make the most sense. Paul Giamatti’s Rhino was always at the top of that list, and some claimed that fans would finally get to see the villain in action in a Spider-Man movie.
The shocking Spider-Man villain surprise
Sony ended The Amazing Spider-Man franchise abruptly, and we never got to see Rhino in action except for that one scene where he was about to fight Spider-Man (above). The other five villains in No Way Home all come from Sony’s older movies, so Rhino made sense as the movie’s sixth villain.
But it looks like fans won’t get their wish.
If you follow the main Marvel leakers, you’ve probably seen the Twitter storms about the sixth Spider-Man villain. They say there isn’t one, which means there’s no Sinister Six. Instead, we’re going to get a Sinister Five team-up, which isn’t really a thing.
There’s no 6th villain either. It’s just Sinister Five.
— BSL (@bigscreenleaks) October 25, 2021
All No Way Home leaks said that the villains will work together against the three Spider-Men because they don’t want to return to their original timelines. Given the massive scope of the movie, it made sense to label the group Sinister Six, assuming that Sony and Marvel will indeed have six villains in the film. We already explained that even without Rhino, we have plenty of good alternatives on the bench. Vulture, Mysterio, Kingpin, and Venom were good candidates, although Venom is obviously unlikely to play a big role in the movie.
But Sony might want to keep the Sinister Six out of the MCU for the time being and assemble them in a different movie. Twitter user @bigscreenleaks appears to be the first to say that Rhino isn’t in the movie. He also noted that Kingpin isn’t in No Way Home. As for Vulture, his name is apparently dropped in the movie.
https://twitter.com/bigscreenleaks/status/1452770873228812297
The villain in the post-credits scene
A Redditor summed up some of the most recent No Way Home leaks, claiming that Rhino will only be name-dropped a few times. That’s because Garfield will refer to him, apparently.
Others reacted to the reports, seemingly confirming that Spider-Man: No Way Home will only feature five villains.
The 5 main villains in #SpiderManNoWayHome are reportedly Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, Lizard and Electro, according to insider @RPK_NEWS1. pic.twitter.com/vNMM9BoE3g
— Binge Watch This (@BingeWatchThis_) October 26, 2021
As always with leaks, there’s no way to verify any of this. But these are trusted sources who have leaked accurate information in the past. Moreover, the claim that there isn’t a mysterious sixth villain in the next Spider-Man movie makes sense, given what we saw so far. Again, Sony and Marvel didn’t tease a sixth villain in the first trailer.
There’s one more Spider-Man villain to consider, however. The same Redditor notes that Venom (Tom Hardy) will appear in the post-credits. That’s something we already assumed, though it would still be a shocking twist. After all, that Venom 2 credits scene ensures that Venom will appear in No Way Home in some form.
The second No Way Home trailer will supposedly drop soon, at which point we expect to see the villains alongside all three Spider-Man variants. Spider-Man: No Way Home will premiere on December 17th.
