All it took was a surprise cameo from Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes at the end of the first Morbius trailer to launch a thousand fan theories, the majority of which didn’t even involve Jared Leto’s Living Vampire at all. Instead, the merest hint of a connection between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters has almost entirely focused on Peter Parker and Eddie Brock.
The first footage from Venom: Let There Be Carnage dropped earlier today, and if you got a kick out of the original, you’ll be glad to know that it looks to deliver much more of the same. Naturally, there are no doubt going to be some folks bearing umbrage with the fact that there weren’t any more overt teases towards the MCU or the title antihero’s famed nemesis, but in a new interview, director Andy Serkis admitted that the characters in his film don’t even know that Spider-Man exists.
“Obviously, there are links between Venom and Spider-Man in the Marvel Universe and the Spider-Man story, but in this, we’re treating this very much as it’s his own world, the Venom story is his own world. There are nods and little moments just like this, the newspaper Daily Bugle, of course, but on the whole, he’s unaware, they’re unaware, at this point of other characters like Spider-Man. So that’s the way we’ve chosen to play this particular episode of the movie but well we’ll wait and see what little things you can pick out of it.”
Ever since that Morbius stinger, we’ve been seeing multiple stories that say Tom Holland is dropping by for a cameo appearance in Let There Be Carnage or that Tom Hardy will be returning the favor in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but Serkis’ comments would seem to pour cold water on those aspersions.
It obviously can’t be ruled out from happening in the future, though, especially with Sony and Disney appearing to have a stronger working relationship than ever before, but it looks as if the director is keen to see Venom: Let There Be Carnage stand on its own merits, which is exactly the right approach to take when you consider that the SPUMC is still only one movie old at this stage.