Spider-Man: No Way Home pits three Spider-Men against five sinister villains, including the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and The Lizard. There was no sixth member, leaving many fans to wonder why the threequel missed out on the opportunity to make use of the Sinister Six.
The Vulture or a returning Mysterio could have easily got involved, while Venom being in the MCU but never crossing paths with Tom Holland's Spider-Man also robbed this "team" of a sixth member.
Now, Spider-Man: No Way Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have confirmed that they considered at least two more bad guys for the threequel's final battle. "Yes, there was [talk of Mysterio or Rhino returns]," the former confirmed during an interview on The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith (via ComicBook.com). "Yeah, there was definitely talk, like, 'Who is the Sinister Six here?'"
"If you want six, you can always say Venom was the sixth [member] if you want. He's in the tag, he made it [into the MCU], but he never made it out of Mexico [Laughs]. There was always that talk of, 'Should we be doing officially the Six?' I think what's so fun about working off the [comic book] canon is you can reinvent, and we know that people know the canon, but maybe everything doesn't line up...was Venom the sixth, or was there someone else lurking?"
"Who were some of those shapes in the sky that's coming through?" McKenna teased.
Silhouettes of Mysterio, Rhino, Scorpion, Kraven the Hunter, and more all appeared in the sky above the Statue of Liberty, though there's nothing to suggest any of them managed to break through and remain in the MCU. However, a piece of the Venom symbiote has been left behind, which would seem to hint that we're going to see a new take on the alien costume in Spider-Man 4 and beyond.
Who would you have liked to see join the MCU's Sinister Six?