The Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown right into a behemoth since its inception in 2008, with dozens of initiatives, a whole lot of characters, and hundreds of hours of display time, making it near-impossible to maintain up with the franchise in its entirety. Whereas Marvel Studios is fairly good about maintaining with the heroes of the mainline MCU, the initiatives on the periphery of the franchise usually have characters who’re fully forgotten about, akin to this fan-favorite villain.
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (aka the SSU) was one of many weirdest chapters of the MCU. The mission appeared like a one-sided relationship, with Sony desperately shoving MCU connections into each mission whereas Marvel Studios ignored these makes an attempt. SSU characters like Morbius, Madame Net, and Kraven the Hunter are largely forgotten at this level, however there was one breakout star of the franchise: Venom.
Venom: The Final Dance Launched In Theaters 2 Years In the past Immediately
2018’s Venom kicked off the SSU, and whereas the remainder of the cinematic universe was an abject failure, the Venom collection was the one diamond within the tough. Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock was a genuinely enjoyable character to observe, and his solo motion pictures had been every extra commercially and critically profitable than different SSU initiatives. Whereas the Venom movies weren’t awards-season darlings, they had been thought to be enjoyable, which might be why it’s the one collection that stored coming again. The collection received its first sequel with the discharge of 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, after which the trilogy concluded with the discharge of 2024’s Venom: The Final Dance, through which Venom dies, Eddie Brock retires from superheroics, and Knull teases an excellent grander plan.
The third movie hit theaters on October 25, 2024, and for the reason that SSU was seemingly falling aside within the lead-up to the movie, it was framed as the ultimate goodbye to the character. Whereas it wasn’t the grand finale of the SSU, with that honor as a substitute going to 2024’s Kraven the Hunter, The Final Dance was positively the grand finale of the franchise’s cultural impression. The film earned 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, and whereas this isn’t nice, it’s fairly good for the SSU. Plus, it made $478.9 million on a funds of $120 million. The movie spawned memes and reignited the cultural dialog surrounding the SSU, and whereas it wasn’t tearful, it was a goodbye.
| Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Movie | Rotten Tomatoes % |
| Venom | 31% |
| Morbius | 15% |
| Venom: Let There Be Carnage | 58% |
| Madame Net | 10% |
| Venom: The Final Dance | 40% |
| Kraven the Hunter | 15% |
Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and his symbiotic superhero companion had been simply the spotlight of the SSU. Hardy’s efficiency was numerous enjoyable, and the character was genuinely compelling, even when the movies he was surrounded by had been a comparative letdown. So, it’s stunning that we haven’t seen Hardy’s Venom come again but. In any case, audiences would in all probability be excited to see the character within the MCU, with the caveat that he seems in higher motion pictures than the solo villain movies that Sony was churning out. Now that we’ve seen this iteration of the character as a superhero for 3 motion pictures, it will be enjoyable to see Venom’s transformation right into a villain as he faces off with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
Marvel Already Missed Its Probability To Deliver Tom Hardy’s Venom Again
Sadly, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see Tom Hardy’s Venom make a return. The SSU that he emerged from appears to be over. Many of the in-development villain initiatives had been cancelled, and the team-up film that initiatives like Morbius teased by no means got here to fruition. As a substitute, Sony appears to be centered on making spinoffs of the Spider-Verse motion pictures, such because the Prime Video Spider-Noir collection. Thus, there isn’t actually a spot for Sony to make the most of the character sooner or later, excluding the outlandish chance that the villain movies begin again up.
So, if Marvel wished to maintain utilizing this Venom exterior of the SSU, the obvious method to do it will be to switch him to the MCU. Nevertheless, this already occurred, and the MCU did nearly nothing with it. The post-credits scene of Let There Be Carnage noticed Venom get transported to the MCU, organising a crossover in Spider-Man: No Means Residence. Nevertheless, Venom solely appeared within the movie’s mid-credits scene, the place he’s transported again to his house universe with out a lot consequence. A little bit of the symbiote is left within the MCU, however one other Spider-Man movie has come and gone since this reveal with out something taking place. So, it’s uncertain that this symbiote will ever quantity to something.
So, bar the MCU stepping into a wildly completely different path, there is just one extra place the place Hardy’s Venom has a great likelihood of coming again. Avengers: Secret Wars is ready to be the grand conclusion to the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, and if what we find out about Avengers: Doomsday is something to go off of, Secret Wars will likely be crammed with characters who originated exterior of Earth-199999. The MCU in all probability doesn’t need to additional affiliate itself with the SSU, but when any character from this odd franchise had been to look, it will be Venom. It’s nonetheless an extended shot, nevertheless it isn’t unreasonable for followers of the character to have their fingers crossed.