Will 'The Amazing Spider-Man' receive more sequels and spinoffs?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not even in theaters yet (it comes out in the United States on May 2, 2014) but Sony has already greenlit The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 and has even set release dates for them in 2016 and 2018, respectively. But that might just be the beginning according to Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal.

TheWrap reports that Pascal told investors during a presentation on Thursday that, "We are going to access Marvel's full world of Spider-Man characters, so be on the lookout for new heroes and villains."

This is a promising statement but also incredibly vague. The problem is that Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man, but Disney owns most of the Marvel properties (and Marvel Studios produces the movies such as The Avengers) and Fox owns the X-Men rights. All Sony can use is the cast of Spider-Man characters (Venom, Black Cat, Electro, etc.) which, while robust, does not allow much room from crossover films.

So while the long-awaited Spider-Man/Avengers/X-Men team-up might still be a long ways off (or never actually happen at all), it seems like Sony wants to forge ahead with some spinoff films. The most likely candidate for such a movie is Venom. He's the most compelling (and probably most popular) character that the Spider-Man universe has, and he could carry a film by himself.

Regardless of what happens, Sony knows what it has in the Spider-Man franchise. The three original Sam Raimi films and The Amazing Spider-Man have generated more $3.2 billion, which makes Spidey the most successful franchise in the company's history, even ahead of James Bond.