I was pretty damn skeptical about Venom. On the face of it, Sony’s plans to spin out their own cinematic universe based around some B-list Spider-Man villains didn’t seem very promising, and Venom being the launch movie for those plans didn’t fill me with hope. Sure enough then, upon release, the almost uniformly dreadful reviews came in, with critics saying it was an embarrassing disaster.
But then I actually saw the movie and I really enjoyed it, as did audiences around the world. Venom has cleaned up at the box office, surpassing the total haul of Justice League, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Logan and even Wonder Woman. As such, Venom 2 is inevitable and from the sounds of it, it may even feature a certain friendly neighbourhood web-slinger.
One of the pic’s screenwriters, Jeff Pinker, spoke to Discussing Film recently and was asked about the future of the franchise. He wouldn’t confirm anything outright, but did tease the following:
“Without revealing anything that I’m not allowed to reveal, it is not impossible that in a future/upcoming Venom movie, Spider-Man will play a significant role…I think it’s fair to say that everyone involved would be very excited by a Spider-Man/Venom movie.”
So, how could this happen? Well, as I see it, there are two hurdles to get over. One is who’s in control of the Spider-Man IP and the other is an in-universe explanation for how the two come together. Legally, Sony holds the movie rights to Spider-Man, though they’re currently on loan to Marvel Studios so as to let the character appear in MCU-set movies. That deal also allows for Marvel to make five films featuring him, of which the final one will be Spider-Man: Far From Home this summer.
Once that’s up, Sony’s free to use Spider-Man in their own universe, though it’s unknown whether they’d retain Tom Holland in the role (I sure hope they do). Then there’s the question of whether this would be the MCU Spider-Man or a new take on the character altogether.
In-universe, things are a little more straightforward. Eddie Brock mentions being fired from a newspaper in New York, which could easily be reworked into his comics origin in which Spider-Man causes Brock’s reputation to be ruined, creating a lasting fury towards the web-slinger. You might think he’d have mentioned Spidey in Venom, but I guess they’ll just have to paper over that little plothole.
Perhaps once upon a time, there was a chance that Venom could have even been retrofitted as an MCU movie, but given how much of a runaway success its been, I suspect Sony will be all too happy to forge ahead with their own plans. Either way, some flavor of Spidey and Tom Hardy’s Venom will probably be going toe-to-toe, and we imagine it’ll be sooner rather than later.
