LOS ANGELES – Spider-Man’s future is caught in a web of speculation.

洛杉矶——蜘蛛侠的前景陷入猜测的迷网之中。

Sony Pictures owns the movie rights to Spider-Man in perpetuity (as long as films keep coming), the result of a decades-old deal with Marvel Entertainment. But Marvel, riding a string of mega-hits, has made it very clear in recent years that it wants Spidey back. Sony has firmly resisted: Not for sale.

由于几十年前与漫威娱乐公司签订的合同，索尼电影公司拥有电影《蜘蛛侠》(Spider-Man)的永久权利（只要影片还在拍摄）。近年来，随着漫威推出一系列重磅大片，它也清晰地表明了希望蜘蛛侠回归的愿望。索尼则坚持说：蜘蛛侠是非卖品。

Is that position softening?

索尼的立场有所软化吗?

Despite whispers among some producers that the answer is “yes” – especially after “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” underperformed at the domestic box office last summer – Sony executives have continued to say otherwise. Sony has been very public about its future plans for the character, announcing a Spider-Man spin-off called “The Sinister Six” for 2016 and “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” for 2018.

尽管有些制作人私下里说，答案是肯定的——特别是今夏《超凡蜘蛛侠2》(The Amazing Spider-Man 2)国内票房表现不尽如人意——但索尼的官员们仍然说公司的立场没有改变。索尼已经公开了这个角色的未来计划，宣布在2016年推出蜘蛛侠新的派生作品《险恶六人组》(The Sinister Six)，2018年推出《超凡蜘蛛侠3》(The Amazing Spider-Man 3).

But the chatter won’t go away. Now fans have picked it up. “Avengers Civil War! Marvel and Sony to Do Deal for Spider-Man?” read a Monday headline on Moviepilot, a fan blog. By Tuesday, or so it seemed, all of geekdom was atwitter over the possibility of Spider-Man joining his comic book brethren in Marvel’s cinematic universe.

但是猜测从未停止。如今影迷们又重拾起这个话题。“‘复仇者’内战！漫威与索尼就‘蜘蛛侠’做交易？”影迷博客Moviepilot周一的头条标题写道。到了周二，所有的铁杆粉丝们好像都在twitter上讨论，蜘蛛侠是否会回到漫威电影世界，加入到他的漫画同胞们当中去。

Conspiracy theorists also note that Sony agreed in 2011 to sell certain Spider-Man merchandising rights to Marvel for $278 million. Past as prologue?

阴谋论者们也注意到，2011年，索尼以2.78亿美元的价格把蜘蛛侠的特定周边产品权利卖给漫威。难道这只是一个前奏吗？

A Sony spokesman declined to comment. Marvel also declined to comment.

索尼发言人拒绝就此发表评论。漫威也表示拒绝评论。

The upshot: When there is smoke in Hollywood, someone is almost always trying to start a fire. Whether one actually starts is another matter altogether.

结论就是：每当好莱坞冒出点烟雾，就总会有人想来一场熊熊大火 。至于最终能不能烧起来，那又是另一回事了。