Just a few years after Sony’s Spider-Man franchise looked like it had hit rock bottom, it’s now one of the most exciting — and expansive — superhero brands. The new live-action film, Spider-Man: Far From Home opens in theaters in a couple weeks and it is pretty great (but don’t take my word for it). Months ago we got Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, maybe the best Spider-Man movie ever made. And a few months before that, Sony turned Venom — featuring Tom Hardy as the unstable anti-hero in the symbiotic costume — into a surprise blockbuster. (It grossed $855 million worldwide! That’s a lot of money for a movie about Tom Hardy jumping into a lobster tank and eating a live lobster!)

Fans are understandably excited and curious about what all these spider-characters are going to do next, and whether they all might merge into one mega-franchise like the cinematic version of Voltron. Via Cinema Blend, Marvel President Kevin Feige says such an outcome is quite “likely” — but that the decision to make a Spider-Man versus Venom movie is not up to him:

I think probably it's up to Sony. Sony has both those characters and, has Venom in their world. I don't know what their plans are for another Venom or if they’re doing that. But it seems likely at some point.

To me, the big hurdle here is creative. Tom Hardy’s Venom seems to exist in another dimension from Tom Holland’s Spidey; managing the tone of the two coming into contact could be very tricky. But the marquee value of those two stars (and those two characters) has to be incredibly hard to be resist. Hence it’s “likely” to happen at some point down the line. Spider-Man: Far From Home opens in theaters on July 2.

Gallery — Marvel Characters We Want to see in Phase Four of the MCU:

More From WRRV-WRRB