Summary

Venom: The Last Dance lead Tom Hardy addresses crossover rumors with MCU Spider-Man, leaving the possibility open.
Venom 3 strives to redefine negativity surrounding the franchise, banking on symbiote lore and Knull's addition.
PG-13 rating may hinder gory potential but increases the likelihood of a Spider-Man crossover in the future.

Venom: The Last Dance has been at the center of crossover rumors for months now, with this final installment of Sony’s only successful Marvel property being well placed to finally bring the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, the film’s leading man has finally addressed the speculation in a recent public appearance.

Venom: The Last Dance is the third and final installment of the Tom Hardy-led Venom franchise within Sony's Spider-Man Universe, an interconnected universe that has only seen success with Venom and its sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Despite its name and the choice of Marvel characters related to the webslinger, not a single one of the four films currently in Sony’s catalog has actually featured Spider-Man, with the company’s focus instead going to the collaborative Home trilogy with Marvel Studios. While there were initially only vague hopes for some sort of cameo in the final film, reports of Venom 3 reshoots sparked fan speculation about a Spider-Man appearance in the finale.

While Hardy has previously confirmed that the upcoming threequel will be his last film as the character and a Venom theory has already pinpointed the symbiote’s next potential carrier, fans still haven’t given up on the idea that Hardy’s Eddie Brock will meet Tom Holland’s Spider-Man post-The Last Dance to bring the character into the MCU. While at a fan event down in Mexico, The Direct reports that Hardy was asked about the potential crossover with Spider-Man, a matter he has never previously weighed in on despite months of speculation. "Will we ever meet Spider-Man?... You know... See, there are always possibilities. But I cannot possibly say anything, because this is the last movie," Hardy said, ever coy. "And yeah, so I would love that." While the statement is pretty vague, it’s the most substantial thing that anyone involved with Venom has said on the issue, leaving the door open to a potential collaboration between Sony’s two Spider-Man universes.

It’s hard to argue that a crossover would be far more likely if the Venom franchise was a standalone trilogy, as the absolute failures of Morbuis and Madame Web put the entire enterprise in the red with fans and (probably) any executives with a vested interest in preserving the stellar record that Holland’s Spider-Man has earned both as a standalone project and as a part of the MCU. As it stands, Venom 3 is trying to use its focus on symbiote lore to finally crest the negativity wave that’s been a part of the conversation for years now. The addition of Knull in the upcoming film could be the strongest play that Sony has made to set up something functional to build on going forward. While Kraven The Hunter is still on the way and even managed to secure an R rating, it’s debatable whether any project not directly related to Hardy’s Venom will even get a fair shot from audiences after the disaster of the other two.

Venom: The Last Dance only recently confirmed its own PG-13 rating that really needed to be an R rating to maximize the character’s gory potential, but conversely makes the possibility of a crossover with Holland’s Spider-Man and the MCU much more likely. While fans shouldn’t get their hopes up to see that big crossover when The Last Dance hits theaters , the film will certainly be an important one for the future of the Sony franchise and any crossovers that might manifest, and will still be the stepping stone for Knull to make his way into the mainstream.

Venom: The Last Dance is set for theatrical release on October 25, 2024.

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