'Sinister Six' Concept Art Teases The Return Of Norman Osborn

With The Amazing Spider-Man 3 pushed back to 2018, the villain-heavy spinoff Sinister Six is now set to be the next entry in the franchise. And so Sony is getting down to the business of setting it up.

A featurette included on the Target exclusive edition of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 offers our first taste of Sinister Six, including some very intriguing bits of concept art. Check it out after the jump.

For the most part, the video draws from existing movies — not just The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but also Sam Raimi's earlier Spider-Man trilogy. Villains like Green Goblin (both versions), Electro, Venom, Sandman, Rhino, Doc Ock, and the Lizard flash by in snippets of familiar footage.

But then we get to this quick peek at some new concept art.

Sinister Six concept art

Those look like Vulture's wings and Doc Ock's tentacles, both of which were briefly glimpsed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And that Futurama-like head-in-a-jar? That appears to be the cryogenically frozen head of Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper), who died in the last film. It was supposed to be teased in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as well, but the scene ultimately got cut.

How all these pieces fit together remains unclear. Webb and Sony haven't confirmed which six baddies will comprise the Sinister Six. Though they dropped a post-credits Easter egg suggesting the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, the Vulture, the Rhino, Kraven the Hunter, and Mysterio could be it, we later heard that the lineup wasn't set in stone just yet.

It does seem a reasonable assumption that Green Goblin and Rhino will be on the team, since both appeared in and survived The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as well as Doc Ock and the Vulture, since Sony keeps teasing them.

And it's not surprising that Norman Osborn will resurface in the story since, well, he's played by Chris Cooper. There would be no reason to cast an actor of that caliber if Sony weren't planning to do more with the character. But what form he'll take, or what he'll do once he wakes back up, is anyone's guess right now.

Sinister Six arrives November 11, 2016. Drew Goddard is directing.