We're just a few weeks away from the cinematic return of our favourite web-spinning friend but the question now is what does the future hold?

The latest talk is of a spin-off bringing together some of Spider Man's foes that will come out before The Amazing Spider-Man 4.

Sony announced last year that the fourth Spider-Man installment would be coming out in 2018 but it seems that the movie slated for that year is in fact going to be a spin-off, either Venom or Sinister Six.

The rumor is that both these spin-offs will be out before The Amazing Spider-Man 4.

The latest update comes courtesy of DenOfGeek.us, which got the scoop directly from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach.

They told the website that Marc Webb will be directing The Amazing Spider-Man 3, billed for May 27, 2016, but has ruled himself out of The Amazing Spider-Man 4, which is due for release May 4, 2018. 

The website reports Drew Goddard, of "Cabin in the Woods", is down to direct Sinister Six, and that Tolmach confirmed that Venom and Sinister Six would be out before Spider-Man 4 because they are still working out what the latter will look like. 

Ideas seem loose at the moment but he did say there would be "a lot of crossover" between Spider-Man 3, 4, Sinister Six and Venom. 

SlashFilm.com interprets this news as a sign that The Amazing Spider-Man 4 will be akin to some kind of new beginning for the franchise, in a similar vein to how The Amazing Spider-Man shook things up after Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. 

MTV reports that Sony is planning to launch the Sinister Six movie as part of an initiative to release new Spider-Man movies "on a faster schedule". 

It says there are no specific details on Sinister Six at the moment, beyond the fact that it is in the pipeline, and that the villains are not confirmed.  

Andrew Garfield shared his own thoughts on the matter, telling MTV he'd be "excited" to see a film that brought in The Avengers as villains.  

"Spider-Man is kind of there on the fringes, but it's about how a band of villains gets together.  That's an awesome film.  That's a film I'd be excited to see," he says.  

Jamie Foxx ventures to speak up for Electro being in the mix.  He points out: "Electro is electricity.  So he can never die; he'll just go to a difference place." 

Well, that's whet our appetite but in the meantime we'll just have to settle for catching The Amazing Spider-Man 2, out in cinemas on May 2 - or April 16 if you are in the UK.