Drew Goddard’s dream project, his Sinister Six movie, was one of the unfortunate casualties of the Sony-Marvel Spider-Man deal. The project is shelved, at least for now, but Goddard still has hope that the film will be made.

“It’s a long game,” Goddard tells IGN. “It could still happen. It’s certainly not going to happen soon… but I’ve learned, look, Cabin in the Woods, we went into bankruptcy and had to stay on the shelf for a couple of years. It’s OK.”

As for the film itself, Goddard says it’s important to distinguish between “villain” and “antagonist.”

“When you’re doing just a straightforward superhero movie, you don’t need a lot of villains,” he says. “The focus is on one guy. I think with Sinister, it’s different. To me it's less about too many villains and more about too many antagonists and there’s a distinction. You never say, like, The Dirty Dozen has too many characters. They’re all villains, or you could argue that. But they’re protagonists. The trick with Sinister, is that I was making everyone the protagonist and less about six-on-one and more about coming at it a little differently. That was the idea.”

As for comparison’s to Warner Bros. Suicide Squad, Goddard isn’t concerned.

“I got a really good piece of advice when I was just starting out as a screenwriter, which was, whatever you’re working on, you will hear about three other things at the exact same time that sound exactly like your project – but don’t worry about it, because otherwise you’ll never get anything done. And I just always trust that we’ll make it unique. Things have cosmetic similarities.”

Goddard’s next film is The Martian, opening in theaters Oct. 2.