Venom: Let There Be Carnage arrives in under two weeks and looks awesome. Indications are that they’re leaning hard into the hilarious Venom/Eddie odd couple dynamic, with the added bonus of Woody Harrelson chewing the scenery (and likely various characters) as Carnage. But despite old rumors of a cameo, Spider-Man won’t be joining the party.
The Web-Slinger is closely entangled in both Venom and Carnage’s histories, though the rights’ situation between Disney and Sony prevents him from meeting them on the big screen. That may change soon, however, as Tom Hardy is exploring ways to make this happen.
In a new interview with ET Canada, he discussed where the Venom movies fit into the wider Spider-Man story and where the next sequel could go:
“There’s a Venom-Verse, you know, there’s a Spider-Verse, there’s multiverses, there’s all kinds of canon and lore and mythology to explore both laterally and forward in time. I think with the right people and the right planning, and feedback from the audience, and understanding it’s about making the right choices at the right time… Even with foresight of understanding where things may go already or they wish to go, it’s a combination of all those in the alchemy of what it will be.”
Let’s face it, if Marvel Studios can bring over Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin for Spider-Man: No Way Home, they can get Tom Hardy’s Venom to meet Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
It appears that efforts are indeed underway to get these two together. We’ve heard that Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige is attempting to broker a deal to bring the two characters together. Relations between the two companies have thawed after the drama of 2019, with the upcoming Morbius appearing to contain a poster featuring Spidey.
A good indication of what they’re planning came from Feige himself, who said in a 2019 interview that:
[Spider-Man] also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.
My hope is Venom 3 is a crazy superhero mashup. I’d love to see this tackle the 1990s comic arc ‘Maximum Carnage’, in which symbiotes take over New York City and Spider-Man and Venom team up to stop them. But, however they do it, I just want to see Tom Holland reacting to the bonkers Tom Hardy Venom on the big screen.
Maybe it’s too much to expect a surprise Venom cameo in No Way Home, but I suspect that we’ll start hearing rumblings about this crossover early in 2022.
In the meantime, Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits theaters on October 1st.