Sony is openly seeking to emulate the success of Marvel’s Avengers series by turning their Spider-Man franchise into an expanded universe of new characters and films.

The studio has already assembled the collected writing talents of Alex, Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Ed Solomon and Drew Goddard to mastermind The Amazing Spider-Man 3 script. The hope being director Marc Webb will be able to deliver a finished film for a summer 2016 release date.

Assuming all goes well Kurtzman & Orci will then partner with Now You See Me writer Ed Solomon to finally give Spider-Man’s anti-hero nemesis Venom his own film. This news implicitly confirming that Venom will be at least one of the popular villains re-introduced in the third film.

Hastily introduced and disappointingly played by Topher Grace in the last of Sam Rami’s Spider-Man series, Venom remains a firm favourite among comicbook fans. The character is the result of a fusion between musclebound vigilante Eddie Brock and an alien symbiote, united by a shared hatred of Peter Parker. Whilst frequently doing battle against Spider-Man, Venom often served as a morally ambiguous hero in his own right and even reluctantly teamed up with Spidey to face more deadly foes on occasion.

The piece in Sony’s master plan for expanding the franchise is a Sinister Six film to be written and directed by Drew Goddard.  The film will feature six of Spider-Man’s most deadly and recognizable villains, without necessarily being just another Spider-Man film.