Ever since Venom surprised a lot of people by racing to over $850 million at the box office despite hardly being a great movie, the idea of seeing Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock face off against Tom Holland’s Peter Parker has always felt like an inevitability. When Sony threatened to take their ball and go home last summer, jeopardizing Spider-Man‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe future in the process, it was widely believed that the decision was motivated by the success of the symbiotic blockbuster, which had galvanized the studio into thinking they didn’t need Kevin Feige to succeed.
Of course, Sony already botched two Spider-Man franchises of their own after becoming too heavily involved in the productions to the detriments of the stories being told, and the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters is far from a sure thing, either. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is poised to do big numbers, true, but the jury is still very much out on Jared Leto’s Morbius, and if the vampiric comic book adaptation bombs, then the future of the SPUMC instantly becomes a lot cloudier.
In any case, we all know Tom Hardy has a habit of posting pictures of Venom and Spider-Man on social media before almost instantly deleting them, and everyone is expecting the two to cross paths in the not too distant future. In fact, insider Daniel Richtman now claims that the character might be turning up in the MCU’s Spider-Man 3. But then again, who hasn’t been rumored to appear in the multiversal sequel at this point?
The Spider-Man 3 villains we know about so far are;
Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Electro, Sandman.
Mysterio, Scorpion, Kraven, Valture, Venom could also show up. We'll know for sure soon enough.
— Daniel Richtman (@DanielRPK) December 15, 2020
There’s obviously going to be a Spider-Man and Venom crossover under the Sony banner eventually, but quite how Hardy would factor into a story that’s already bringing back at least half a dozen familiar faces from the web-slinger’s past remains a mystery. It certainly doesn’t sound like it’s something that’s set in stone just yet, but it’ll definitely be interesting to see whether it ends up happening or not.