Since the moment Jamie Foxx was cast in Spider-Man: No Way Home, there has been speculation online about Tom Holland's wall-crawler squaring off with some sort of interdimensional Sinister Six. Those rumours were fuelled by Alfred Molina being added to the cast as Doctor Octopus, while the trailer made it pretty obvious that we'll also see Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin.
We've heard a lot about which familiar villains will join them, with Sandman, The Lizard, and Rhino named as the most likely candidates for the MCU's take on the Sinister Six. Unfortunately, we might be waiting a little while longer to see that group assemble.
According to a new rumour (and a few different "insiders" have said the same thing), Paul Giamatti's Rhino won't factor into Spider-Man: No Way Home in any way. It always felt like some of these scoopers were just throwing his name into the mix since there aren't really many other options, and this may confirm it.
With that in mind, we have only five villains for the three Spider-Men (assuming Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield and show up) to square off against. That's bound to disappoint some fans, but given Quentin Beck's bold claims about the Multiverse and the way he defeated Peter in Spider-Man: Far From Home, we'd be shocked if Mysterio doesn't make his presence felt at some point.
For now, it looks like we'll be getting five major villains from previous Spider-Man franchises, and that's no bad thing. Rhino was one of the worst things about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and aside from Mysterio, there's really no one else we'd want to see return (unless you're a big fan of the two disappointing Harry Osborn Green Goblins).
Spider-Man: No Way Home will be released in theaters on December 17.