“Project Hail Mary” writer says the Sony hack killed his Spider-Man spinoff
“Project Hail Mary” writer says the Sony hack killed his Spider-Man spinoff
Derek LawrenceThu, March 19, 2026 at 9:43 PM UTC
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Jamie Foxx and Andrew Garfield in 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2.'Credit: Niko Tavernise/Sony
Project Hail Mary screenwriter Drew Goddard is telling the story of his Amazing Spider-Man spinoff's demise — and it's like something straight out of a movie.
"I had a big Spider-Man movie about the Sinister Six go down because of the Sony hack," he said.
First announced in 2013, The Sinister Six — which would've set Spider-Man's deadliest adversaries against Andrew Garfield's version of Peter Parker — was cancelled following Sony's deal with Marvel that allowed the friendly neighborhood hero to appear in the MCU. But in Goddard's telling, the infamous 2014 cyberattack orchestrated by a group calling themselves the "Guardians of Peace" is really to blame.
Speaking to Variety, Goddard recalled law enforcement's response to the massive leak of confidential Sony Pictures data.
Drew Goddard attends the 'Project Hail Mary' world premiere.Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty
"My office was right on the lot, and I saw the FBI swarm in and the helicopters fly over the studio,"
"I was sad about it," the Cabin in the Woods director said of The Sinister Six's hack-related demise, "but there was literally nothing I could do to change the course of events. I suppose it was better than if they hadn't liked the script."
Sony returned to the idea of uniting Spider-Man's nemeses with 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, a multiverse story featuring Willem Dafoe's Green Gobin, Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus, Jamie Foxx's Electro, Rhys Ifans' Lizard, and Thomas Haden Church's Sandman. Meanwhile, Goddard pivoted from The Sinister Six to writing 2015's The Martian, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
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Goddard previously said his take on the Sinister Six was "really fun."
"I wouldn't have done it had I not thought there was a real opportunity to do something different and exciting and just flat-out bananas," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. "It was very much me and — a much more commercial version of — the Cabin mentality. The punk rock mentality that led to Cabin is very much at the core of Sinister Six."
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Goddard returned to space (and adapting the work of author Andy Weir) for Project Hail Mary. Up next, he's writing and directing Matrix 5, the first film in the franchise not to hail from the Wachowskis.
"I can't say too much, because we're still in the stage of writing it," he told Variety. "I need to give myself space to find the best story. I think the approach will be the way I approach anything, which is, do I love it? And I love what Lana and Lilly Wachowski did with those movies. They mean so much to me and I feel like they've had a profound impact on my creative voice. I take this responsibility very seriously. I feel the weight of wanting to do right by the fans, wanting to do right by the creators and wanting to do right for myself as a fan."
Project Hail Mary opens in theaters March 20.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
