The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Marc Webb Says There's A Plan To Expand Spider-Man's Universe

Marvel Studios had great success with building the Avengers universe, and it's something that a lot of other studios would like to copy. Warner Bros. seems to be heading that route with the Justice League, and 20th Century Fox even seems to be on the way to achieving something similar with the X-Men and possible Fantastic Four. Sony would probably like to accomplish something similar as well, but their challenge is they just own Spider-Man movie right. However, only owning one standalone superhero franchise doesn't seem to be stopping Sony from pursuing their own expanded universe. In an interview with Movies.com, Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb said, "There's always been a plan to expand this universe. To make a series of films that were interrelated and that weren't purely episodic. That there were certain ongoing stories that were going to play out over multiple films. So that's always been in the works. There have been some early talks about the nature of those next two movies. It's still too early to talk about too many of the details. If you pay attention to this film that's coming out in May of next year, you may get a feeling and a sense of what's to come in the future." When asked about the third and fourth Spider-Man movies, Marc Webb said, "There may be elements that expand outside of Spider-Man that could fulfill that fourth film." When asked if he was laying the groundwork for a shared universe, Marc Webb said, "There's certainly groundwork that's been laid, even from the first film that will play out. The detail and the nuance of that we're still sort of working on exactly how that will work. But everyone, myself and the rights holders are excited by the possibilities. There's so many rich characters that have been set in the Spider-Man universe that there's something exciting about being able to overlap and combine different universes." So how can Sony expand the Spider-Man universe? Is Webb talking about the constant rumors of overlap with Marvel Studios characters? Or is he merely talking about characters like Scarlet Spider, Venom, Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, and Morbius which could have standalone potential but still fall into the Spider-Man universe?