The idea that Sony was going to make stand-alone movie about Spider-Man villains in a  separate comic-book universe has always seemed a little weird. Obviously they want to monetize the characters they own the rights to, and Silver Sable and Black Cat could conceivably exist as their own thing. But Venom, for example, is almost entirely defined by being a big, black, evil Spider-Man-looking creature. How do you do him in a world without a Spider-Man, without royally messing things up?

Maybe you don’t have to. At a recent joint interview with Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Sony’s Amy Pascal clarified:

[BREAKING NEWS] Amy Pascal confirm Black Cat and Vanom movie will pass in the same universe of “Spider-Man: Homecoming pic.twitter.com/qfAKOulqwE

— Tom Holland Updates (@tomhupdates) June 18, 2017

Basically, what it sounds like she’s saying here is that while Sony may have its own Spider-verse, the Spider-Man that Sony and Marvel share can appear in both, just as Iron Man appears in Spider-Man: Homecoming. It makes sense to license some Spider-Man villains like the Vulture to Marvel so that the shared movies can have familiar foes, but there’s no need to give them all up; heavy hitters like Venom, hypothetically, can sustain their own storylines with Spider-Man existing adjacent to them. It sounds like Sony’s Marvel universe will still be its own thing, but will have Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as a conduit to the larger continuity, even if only in small cameos.

Or are we hearing it wrong? Is there another interpretation of what she said that also makes sense, given what we’ve heard so far? Tell us what you think this all means in comments.

Image: Sony/Marvel Studios