Marvel Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo has confirmed that Sony has paid to renew their rights to the Spider-Man franchise, suggesting that we’ll see some Spidey 4 announcements in the future.

After the ball was dropped by Spider-Man 3, director Sam Raimi seemed interested in moving on while Tobey Maguire did loads of press saying that he would come back if Sam asked him to.

Now, the ball is in Sony’s court on several key decisions. Find out what those are and the estimated release date of Spider-Man 4 below the cut!

IESB reports that Sony’s Spidey re-up suggests a release date of 2010 or 2011, putting the web-slinger right up against Captain America and The Avengers in the Marvel timeline.

Peter Cuneo said: ” “As far as Spider-man 4, it’s really up to Sony and it up to them, most likely scenario is 2010 or 2011 but we can’t speak for them and I think that we don’t know. They have given us their re-up payment for that film so you know they’re going to make it within a reasonable timeframe. Sony may be looking at some issues with the cast and so on, I think they have to make some decisions.”

Previously, we reported that Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt has been hired to write Spidey 4, and that his proposed story arc would bring the franchise into its fifth film, possibly shooting 4 and 5 simultaneously.

Whatever brings us more Spider-Man, we are in favor of. Ditch Maguire and his wishy-washy Parker and bring in some fresh blood.

(Not Shia).