Five villains, three heroes and the returning Doctor Strange were more than enough characters to participate in the climactic third act battle of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but there were unsurprisingly early plans to bring at least one more fan favorite into the mix.
Following the post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, fans were hoping that Tom Hardy’s symbiotic superhero would play a decent-sized role in Tom Holland’s third solo outing, but it would be fair to say that a lot of folks were left disappointed by the way things panned out in the end.
However, during a deep dive interview on No Way Home‘s production with Variety, writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers admitted that Venom was originally set for a much more substantial role in the narrative than he ended up getting. In fact, they even confirmed that having the alien parasite swing into action as either a friend or foe of Peter Parker was “definitely discussed” during the earliest stages of the writing process.
Based on the fact the franchise where the Venom movies exist was recently rebranded as Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, we’re getting that showdown sooner rather than later. The only real question is which version of the web-slinger Hardy is going to find himself up against.