Venom: Let There Be Carnage is just around the corner, promising the movie debut of Carnage, further exploration of the odd couple Venom/Eddie Brock relationship, and some awesome symbiote vs symbiote action. But even with all this ahead of us, people are still asking one question: When is Spider-Man showing up?
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 looks set to change, as Tom Hardy is quite open about his ambition to have the pair join forces.
Earlier this year, he confirmed that he’s trying to “steer any kind of connectivity”, which only supports his past action on social media. This has been going on for a while. In April 2020 he posted (and almost instantly deleted) an image of Venom chowing down on Spidey on Instagram.
Hardy explained in an interview with Comic Book that this image wasn’t a dig at Tom Holland, but rather that he’s looking forward to exploring Venom’s grudge against Spidey, further clarifying:
“I think you can’t do a Venom story without knowing Spider-Man is in the mix. He’s somewhere. But we all know there’s a big constellation of events, you know, that need to move and operate around. As grown ups, we have to go, ‘Okay, we wait.’ We wait for those planes to land and when they land, we’ll see if we can get on one but until then we focus on the task at hand which is Venom 2. But it’s always in the back of our minds, you know? ‘When do I get to eat the Spider-Man?'”
Fortunately for Hardy, the wheels appear to be turning. Kevin Feige is reportedly attempting to broker a deal that would allow Holland’s Spidey to appear in the ‘Venomverse’, though hopefully just for a brief visit. The Marvel Studios head specifically dropped a hint about this happening, saying in a 2019 interview:
[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 plot 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 October 1st.
