LAST WEEK, there was a brief moment when it seemed like Spider-Man might actually be able to join the Avengers. Sony Pictures chief Michael Lynton told a group of financial analysts that the studio not only has "the ambition about creating a bigger universe around Spider-Man," but that Sony was "working closely with Marvel and Disney."

Lynton did not elaborate, and into that vacuum rushed instant speculation that a corporate miracle was brewing, that Sony and Disney would team up to bring together characters who have fought alongside each other in Marvel comics for decades, but have remained sequestered within the separate intellectual property vaults of two distinct movie studios. It sounded too good to be true, and that's because it was: Within an hour of the first reports, Sony scrambled to clarify that while the studio still holds all rights to make movies within the Spider-Man universe, Disney and Marvel retain all merchandising rights to the character — hence the need for Sony to work closely with them. The only place a three-dimensional Spidey and the Hulk would stand together would be on a toy store shelf.

But what about Spidey and luck-charged anti-heroine Black Cat? Or Peter Parker clone Scarlet Spider? Or argentine-haired mercenary Silver Sable? Indeed, it's Lynton's first, far less murky statement about expanding Spider-Man's universe that is the true headline. Earlier this year, Sony claimed the release dates of June 10, 2016, and May 4, 2018, for "the next two films in the story of Peter Parker" — pointedly vague phrasing that Lynton's words further suggest that the studio could start making Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man in the title sooner rather than later. As of now, however, the studio has only offered vague assertions — The Amazing Spider-Man 2, opening May 2, 2014, has so far been sold as a straightforward superhero sequel — leaving fans to speculate over where within Spidey's larger universe Sony might swing to next.

Sony isn't the only studio that's tentatively attempting to get into the universe-building game, either. "It's hard not to notice what Warner Bros. is doing with DC [Comics], to bring these disparate heroes together," said a development executive at a rival studio. "What we're hearing about the Superman/Batman movie is that it's a stealth opener to JLA" — JLA being the Justice League of America, DC Comics' version of Marvel's the Avengers, which over the years has featured such iconic characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Martian Manhunter. (Actually, the JLA first appeared three years before the Avengers, but let's avoid falling down this particular rabbit hole, shall we?) "I think they're finding it hard," said the executive about Warner Bros.' DC universe expansion efforts, "because it's a harder thing to do than it might seem." Indeed, Warner Bros. has tried multiple times over the last 20 years to get a Justice League movie underway, only to have it fall apart each time.

Twentieth Century Fox has at least mounted a kind of quasi-mega-franchise film already in next May's X-Men: Days of Future Past, which brings together the cast of the first three X-Men films with the cast of the 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class. But that latter film absorbed a planned prequel spin-off script for the Nazi-hunting mutant Magneto, and though Fox has successfully spun off Wolverine into two films of his own, star Hugh Jackman has said that the workout and diet regimen for the character has become so grueling that the 45-year-old actor is wary of continuing to play the character for much longer. Meanwhile, a reboot of the Fantastic Four — another Marvel property within Fox's control — is currently underway with director Josh Trank (Chronicle), but talk of bringing those characters together with the X-Men in a mega-franchise film has so far only been that: talk. (Reps for Marvel, Sony, Warner Bros., and Fox all declined requests for comment.)

"[Studios] are all looking at ways to keep their franchises healthy, vibrant, and alive, and feeling fresh and relevant," said a senior executive at another studio. "And if that is by expanding the universe of characters that you have available to you, certainly that's what studio development teams do." But that exec also noted that the furtive, two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back approach these aforementioned studios have been taking with putting together a mega-franchise is born from an understanding that "you just can't catch lightning in a bottle on these things."