Venom: Let There Be Carnage is out next month and is promising intense symbiote-on-symbiote action. Indications are that they’re leaning hard into the odd couple relationship that made the first film a treat, with the added bonus of Woody Harrelson chewing the scenery as Carnage. But there’s one person who (probably) won’t be joining the party: Spider-Man.
The web-slinger is closely entangled in both Venom and Carnage’s comic-book stories, though the business deal between Disney and Sony Pictures has prevented him from meeting them on the big screen. That may change soon, as Tom Hardy has bluntly stated that he wants to make this happen.
In fact, he’s actively looking to do so. In an interview with Esquire, Hardy was asked whether he’d want Venom to meet Spidey and said:
I would be remiss if I wasn’t trying to steer any kind of connectivity. I wouldn’t be doing the job if I wasn’t awake and open to any opportunity or eventuality or be excited by that. Obviously, that’s a large canyon to leap, to be bridged by one person alone, and it would take a much higher level of diplomacy and intelligence, sitting down and talking, to take on an arena such as that.
Fortunately for Hardy, he’s far from alone. Reports are that Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige is attempting to broker a deal that would allow Holland’s Spidey to share a screen with Hardy’s Venom. It seems that relations between the two companies have thawed after the drama of 2019, with the upcoming Sony movie Morbius appearing to contain a poster featuring Spidey.
Feige has specifically dropped a hint to this happening, saying 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 thinking is that this will happen in Venom 3, rumored to be adapting the classic 90s arc ‘Maximum Carnage’. This blockbuster arc centers on Spider-Man, Venom, and Carnage. With the help of other villains, Carnage takes over New York City, with Spider-Man and Venom forming an uneasy alliance to stop him. It’s a fun story tailor-made for an epic cinematic crossover.
With Spider-Man about to embark on a multiversal adventure in No Way Home, the door will soon be wide open for him to hop into another universe. Right now the only thing standing in the way of this is lawyers and accountants, so let’s hope we get confirmation soon after Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits theaters on Sept. 24.
