Tom Hardy's Venom meeting Spider-Man is an essential component of Sony's expanding Marvel Universe. When it comes to dark comic book villains, Venom is one of the most loved of all. Venom has also evolved greatly as a character, going from a villain to anti-hero and self-dubbed "Lethal Protector" over the years.
Venom made his big-screen debut in 2007's Spider-Man 3, with Topher Grace playing his human half, Eddie Brock. While the biggest box office success of the original Spider-Man trilogy, Spider-Man 3 ended up being the least liked of them. Among the criticisms it faced was the role of Venom, which ended up being more of a last-minute final boss than the long-running Spidey foe many were hoping for.
A Venom spin-off had initially been planned to follow Spider-Man 3. Eventually, Venom was realized in 2018 - albeit beginning with a fresh slate and with Tom Hardy assuming the role of Eddie Brock, outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite being an independent story, Venom would eventually drift back into Spider-Man's web with 2021's Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Far from just setting up a Venom vs. Spidey confrontation as a hypothetical, Sony's entire slate of villain-centered Marvel movies relies on this tease being realized.
Venom Is Heavily Linked To Spider-Man
Spider-Man's rogues gallery is among the most widely-known and loved of any superhero, and Venom is easily one of his most popular. The genesis of how Venom came to be is also one of the most famed villain origin stories. In the comics, Spidey's new black suit is an alien symbiote that gradually begins taking control of him. After Peter frees himself from the symbiote, disgraced journalist Eddie Brock becomes the symbiote's new host, the two adopting the name Venom and seeking revenge on Spidey.
Spider-Man 3 made some modifications to Venom's origin and Topher Grace's Eddie Brock, but followed the same broad strokes. With the release of Venom in 2018, the story dispensed with the Spider-Man ties and brought Eddie and the symbiote directly together. That didn't stop Venom for amassing $876.1 million and being the seventh-biggest movie of 2018. Still, Venom's connection to Spider-Man as one of his defining character traits was something that neither Sony nor Marvel could ignore for long.
Venom 2 Made A Great Spider-Man Tease (That Went Unresolved)
Venom returned to the big-screen in 2021 with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which put him against the symbiote-bonded Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). Let There Be Carnage also ended on the tease audiences had been waiting for. During a tropical vacation together, Eddie and Venom suddenly find themselves transported to another universe. Even more surprisingly, they see the Daily Bugle news report from the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, which revealed Spidey's identity to the world. With Peter Parker framed for the murder of Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), Venom took an immediate interest in finding Spider-Man.
Though Eddie appeared again in the end-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home, his time in the MCU was short-lived. With Eddie resolving to "go to New York to speak to this Spider-Man", he and Venom suddenly find themselves transported home. Though a fragment of Venom was left behind, this cut off any potential Spidey-Venom meeting before it could even get started. Even Venom comments "No, we just got here!", but despite the brevity of the tease, it did little to undercut the idea of Hardy's Venom meeting a Spider-Man.
Why Venom vs. Spider-Man Is Important For Tom Hardy's Symbiote
With Venom's scenes at the end of Let There Be Carnage and No Way Home, his interest in Spider-Man is the most recent impression he's left on the world. Despite the chagrin of Venom's short role in No Way Home, that's not something that either Venom himself or audiences are going to readily forget about. The latter especially has had their expectations stoked with the tease of a Hardy's Venom finally meeting Spider-Man in his venture to the MCU. While that didn't come to pass in No Way Home, that doesn't mean it can't at all.
One of the major elements of No Way Home was the fact that it brought Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Wall-Crawler's out of retirement. While they too were sent back home at the end of the movie, the prospect of Garfield returning in an Amazing Spider-Man 3 was soon on the minds of many. The potential of Garfield's Spidey also meeting Hardy's Venom wasn't far behind, either. Having emerged both from the chemistry envisioned in the two meeting and as an off-shoot of the Let There Be Carnage-No Way Home tease, Venom and Spidey's second big-screen encounter has become a big topic. Aside from the story significance of this to Hardy's Venom, it also is a bigger factor of Sony's Marvel Universe than it seems.
Why Sony's Spider-Man Universe Needs Hardy's Venom vs. Spidey
Through their shared tease with Marvel of Spider-Man being the next opponent of Hardy's Venom, Sony can't afford to not follow through on it in some way. The advantage No Way Home provides is that it doesn't have to be Tom Holland's Spider-Man that Hardy's Venom meets. When it comes to Sony's Marvel films at large, Venom is also the only pillar they're currently standing on.
The upcoming Morbius is finally set to hit theaters on April 1 after numerous pandemic-related release shuffles. The impact that's unfortunately had on its visibility is one factor it has to contend with. Additionally, chatter around Morbius suggests that the Spider-Man and Vulture connections teased in the trailers have since been minimized in the film. Sony's next Marvel film Kraven the Hunter has had a lot less revealed about it, and like Morbius, focuses on a character less widely known to the general public. Hardy's new alien anti-hero is Sony's biggest A-list Marvel villain, with Jared Leto also interested in Morbius facing Venom at some point. With Morbius and Kraven also Spidey villains, the teases of Hardy's Venom connecting him to the Web-Slinger are becoming too much for Sony's Marvel Universe to ignore. In some form or fashion, a Venom vs. Spidey meeting has begun a necessity for Sony's building franchise of Marvel villains.
The unexpected withdrawal of Hardy's Venom from the MCU doesn't cancel out the idea of Tom Holland's Spider-Man having his own Venom future with some of the symbiote left behind. Still, with the Multiverse becoming the new rage of comic book movies, multiple versions of characters can exist across different platforms simultaneously. This also means that Sony has the potential to build the Spider-Verse that's been their white whale. That said, the most surefire way to ensure the success of Sony's Marvel Universe long-term follows on the tease split between Venom: Later There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Sooner or later, Hardy's Venom and the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are going to have to come face-to-face.
