The sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming has one of the strongest rogues galleries in comic books to turn to when finding a new supervillain worthy of matching up to the friendly neighbourhood hero.
While the obvious suggestions, judging by the film’s post-credits scene, are Scorpion and the Sinister Six, Jacob Batalon – who plays Peter Parker’s best bud Ned – has a different idea. He wants to see Homecoming 2 break down the walls between universes and pit Spidey against Tom Hardy’s Venom, who’s set to appear in Sony’s solo movie.
The actor briefly chatted about his hopes in an interview with Screen Rant, saying the following:
Screen Rant: In your fantasy world what villain would you like to see next for the next Spider-Man film?
Jacob Batalon: It would be interesting to see like Venom, but that’s just me though.
Screen Rant: Alright well hopefully we can because we now know its kind of–
Jacob Batalon: We’ll see what happens. I’m not gonna say nothing else.
Batalon’s initial comment doesn’t need too much analysis. Like the majority of Spider-Man fans out there, it just seems that he’d love to see Venom actually interact with his nemesis in the movies. His second reply, however, is a lot more eyebrow-raising. The way that he’s keen to shut down the discussion suggests he might just have some info on the possibility of Tom Hardy’s symbiotic villain turning up in the MCU.
That being said, fans probably shouldn’t get too excited about this just yet. We’ve heard so many conflicting reports on whether the upcoming solo movie is connected to the work of Marvel Studios that we’ve already got whiplash (the neck injury, not Mickey Rourke). Memorably, Sony’s Amy Pascal initially suggested that Venom was part of the MCU, before Marvel’s Kevin Feige clarified that wasn’t the case.
Later, Spidey himself, Tom Holland seemed to close the book on a potential crossover for good by saying it was “never going to happen.” Still, fans – and Jacob Batalon – live in hope that this is all just a smokescreen to hide something awesome that the two studios have up their sleeves. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if that really is the case.
Venom is set to arrive in theaters October 5th, 2018. Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, meanwhile, lands on July 5th, 2019.
