Venom & The Symbiote Hive's Multiverse Knowledge Explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

The Venom: Let There Be Carnage post-credits scene revealed the symbiotes possess a hive mind that transcends the Multiverse. For years, there's been speculation that Marvel and Sony would eventually reach an agreement that would bring Tom Hardy's Venom and Tom Holland's Spider-Man face-to-face. Venom: Let There Be Carnage's post-credits scene promises to make that a reality at last, with the tongue-slavering symbiote unwittingly transported across the Multiverse, only to find himself watching footage of Holland's Spider-Man unmasked on the TV. Sony's films are officially confirmed to be part of the wider MCU Multiverse, and Venom himself has jumped into the MCU - his arrival perfectly timed for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

But, while all attention is focused on Venom's jumping universes, dialogue in that post-credits scene is just as important. The symbiote admits hiding things from its host Eddie Brock, explaining that "80 billion light years of hive knowledge across universes would explode your tiny little brain." The symbiote hive mind was set up in the first film, and corresponds to the comics themselves, but there's something new here; the idea the symbiotes have traveled across universes, which suggested they've experienced multiple dimensions. In the real world, the observable universe is measured at just 13 billion light years, so - assuming the symbiotes have explored the length and breadth of the universes they have visited - Venom is staking a claim to his race visiting six or more different timelines.

Naturally, a lot of these ideas are expanded from the comics, although Sony is likely to take them in a different direction. Here's all you need to know about the symbiote hive mind and its Multiversal connections.

The Comic Book Origin Of The Symbiote Hive Mind

In the comics, the origin of the symbiotes has been retconned and rewritten many times. The modern origin story claims they predate the formation of the Multiverse, for they were created by a monstrous being named Knull in the days when the universe was young. The so-called "King in Black," Knull lived in the void before the Big Bang and objected vehemently to the creation of light. He led an almost-successful campaign against light and life, forestalling the development of life by billions of years, and consequently preventing the birth of the Multiverse because there were no creatures with the ability to make choices that would create branching reality. Knull created a throneworld of darkness, with a species of symbiotic predators crafted as his servants. He gave his creatures a hive mind to allow him to control it, although eventually that control was broken. Symbiotes who had bonded with those who were pure of heart led the hive mind to turn on Knull, and they imprisoned him on their throneworld "Klyntar" - the symbiote word for prison.

Feeling guilty for their past actions, the symbiotes swore themselves to a new path. "We are the mind and soul of the warrior," the Klyntar explained to the Guardians of the Galaxy in one comic, "but we need a form to act out what we know to be the true ways of a noble and virtuous galaxy... With the right host we have the ability to create the ultimate noble warrior. And because of the delicate balance needed, there are very few members of very few species that can rise to the occasion of what we have to offer. Without the perfect situation, the results could be and often are somewhat... monstrous." If a symbiote is not perfect, it can become corrupted by the self-awareness of its host and develop a mind of its own, breaking away from the host and becoming a rogue. The corruption serves as a cancer, spreading throughout the hive, encouraging still other symbiotes to break away, and as a result, the Klyntar have developed quite a poor reputation across the galaxy - even though their central intention is still noble.

Venom 2 Links The Symbiotes To The Multiverse

It's difficult to say how closely the symbiotes of Venom: Let There Be Carnage correspond with those of the comics, and certainly at this point it's premature to expect any glimpse of Knull in the near future. Still, the official Venom prelude comic confirmed these symbiotes originate from the planet Klyntar, although it didn't go into any real detail about their homeworld. Venom: Let There Be Carnage hints the symbiotes may well have come from another universe entirely, the hive mind exploring different branches of the Multiverse and sending its seeds out into them in search of life. Venom revealed that a symbiote ship is heading towards Earth in Eddie Brock's home reality, a comet discovered by the Life Foundation that was home to millions of the symbiotes. Presumably these ships were scattered across the dimensions, the hive mind allowing the symbiotes on each vessel to learn from their kin in different timelines. That would explain how Venom has accumulated so much knowledge it would "explode your tiny little brain."

Interestingly, the Multiversal hive mind potentially creates a common narrative thread between the Venom movies and Spider-Man 3. There, a meteorite containing a single symbiote crashlanded near to Peter Parker while he was spending some quality time with MJ, and hooked itself to his ride; it subsequently bonded with him, and ultimately became that film's version of Venom (played by Topher Grace). If that particular symbiote was indeed connected to the same hive mind as the modern Venom, then it's no wonder the symbiote reacted so strongly to seeing images of Peter Parker; it has absorbed that symbiote's hatred of Spider-Man through the hive mind. That would neatly explain why Venom, who has been positioned more as an antihero than a villain, is likely to end up going head-to-head with Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home - especially if reports of Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker arriving to help out are true.

The Multiverse is key to the MCU's Phase 4 arc, and it seems to lie at the heart of Marvel and Sony's new deal struck in October 2019. "[Spider-Man] also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige observed in an official statement accompanying news of the agreement. "So as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold." The films haven't quite gotten to that point yet - right now it's Venom who is jumping dimensions, not Spider-Man - but Venom: Let There Be Carnage is clearly a step along the way to getting there.

Next: Venom Movies Prove Marvel's Box Office Success Isn't From Rotten Tomatoes