When The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed both critically and commercially in 2014, Sony Pictures finally relented and made a deal with Marvel Studios to bring Peter Parker into the MCU.
Andrew Garfield was unceremoniously dumped from the franchise, and Tom Holland was cast as the new Spider-Man in time for 2016's Captain America: Civil War. The two studios now share the profits from Spidey's solo outings, but that hasn't stopped Sony from looking to monetise the hero's rogues' gallery with a series of mostly disastrous spin-offs.
Venom, however, was a huge hit in 2018, while Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Venom: The Last Dance performed admirably (the sequel was released during COVID, while the latter came at a time when many moviegoers had given up on Sony's Marvel Universe).
Despite that, the prospect of Spider-Man and Venom crossing paths was first teased in Let There Be Carnage's post-credits scene. Spider-Man: No Way Home's stinger sent Eddie Brock back where he came from, and that was that.
In an interview with Esquire, Tom Hardy talked more about the crossover that never was. "I loved playing Eddie in Venom," the actor started. "Juggling chainsaws. Put me on a unicycle and throw everything at me! I was just really trying to push myself as much as I could."
"But I had no Spider-Man! No Avengers! It’s just us. Until those bridges are crossed," he trailed off. "That’s way beyond my control. And I’d love to do that, but that’s not even a conversation to have at my level, of just being an actor in that world."
Hardy added, "That’s the game. We played in the Sony counterpoint to Disney’s Marvel panoply, of which [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige has a huge amount of cards, and Sony has a huge amount of cards in its own right, including Spider-Man, and then there’s just no crossover. We’d love to cross over! That’s not happened. That’s what happens, and it’s one of those things."
Chances are, Feige never wanted Venom in the MCU, and Sony pushed for those scenes simply because it would increase interest in the Lethal Protector's franchise. There was some chatter about Spider-Man: Brand New Day featuring Hardy's Symbiote, but that no longer looks likely (unless the actor is trying really hard to throw us off the scent).
"I think I’m constantly reminded by children how important these characters are. And they don’t know why their favorite characters aren’t in films together," Hardy said in another recent interview. "We were given a set of boundaries, and we were just really privileged to be able to play with a much-beloved IP like Venom in a way that we were allowed to play."
Rumours persist that Spider-Man will get the alien costume in either Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars; if so, we'd bet on Marvel Studios having its own plans for Venom, with the story likely to play out in Spider-Man 5.
Mac Gargan was a host for the Venom Symbiote at one time in the comics, so we could even end up with a Scorpion/Venom hybrid.
Are you disappointed that Hardy's Venom never met Holland's Spider-Man?