'Sinister Six' spinoff to come next for Spider-Man

NEW YORK (AP) — The Spider-Man franchise will detour next with a "Sinister Six" spinoff in 2016, pushing "The Amazing Spider-Man 3" to 2018, Sony's Columbia Pictures said Wednesday in announcing an updated schedule.

By ordering "Sinister Six" ahead of the next "Spider-Man" movie, the studio hopes to expand the franchise with the group of Marvel super-villains.

Released in May, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" accumulated $706 million worldwide and only just surpassed $200 million domestically. That was considered a disappointing result, since it failed to top its 2012 predecessor, which made $758 million.

"Sinister Six," to be directed by Drew Goddard, is one of two spinoffs planned for the Spider-Man universe. No date has been set for the other offshoot in development, "Venom."

Sony had previously scheduled "Spider-Man" sequels for 2016 and 2018, but "The Amazing Spider-Man 3" will now be pushed to 2018. In its place, Sony has slotted in "Uncharted," an action film based on the PlayStation video game.