Unless something drastic happens in the coming weeks, Spider-Man's time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has reached its end. However, with multiple reports doing the rounds about what comes next, some very interesting new details have been revealed about Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige's involvement in Sony Pictures' Marvel movies.
Buried in
Deadline's report about the split is the fact that Feige
"lent an unofficial hand" to
Venom, but that reportedly happened long before the final cut was delivered.
Instead, it was Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman who
"spent a good long time in the editing room" and, well, he was also in charge of Fox when those changes to Deadpool were made in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine and for the release of the
Fantastic Four reboot in 2015. That probably explains why
Venom received a critical mauling when it hit theaters last October.
io9 also notes that Feige has contributed to a number of Sony/Marvel movies without being credited, so there's a chance he played a role in
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse too. It's hard to say.
What are you guys hoping comes next for Spider-Man?
Hit the "View List" button below to check out some
Venom concept art which pits Eddie Brock against Carnage!
As you can see, Venom has no chest symbol here and looks a lot like the Ultimate version of the character as a result. Still, something is definitely better than nothing, as you'll see below.
Venom has a chest logo here and it looks a lot like the one from the comics. Unfortunately, Sony decided not to include that, presumably because this version of Venom hasn't met Spider-Man.
This is a very extreme take on Venom, but he looks awesome and it would be great to see the Symbiote evolve into this monstrous form in the sequel, especially when he faces off with Carnage!
These designs should definitely remind you of the comic books, as Venom is sporting more of a blue hue. Artist Matt Millard did a great job of imagining how the character could look on screen.
"One of my first task on this movie was to infuse some life in the Character, play around with Venom and make a series of quick studies showing him not as a 3D model but as a creature with a distinct personality (there is a sort of grotesque joyfulness in the character I really love, especially in the Lethal Protector comics)," concept artist Paolo Giandoso says about these pieces.
"Then I was asked to design ways for the Symbiote to slither over Eddie's face and create Venom," he continues.
"In my mind, the symbiote, being a shapeshifter, can potentially grow teeth, gums, eyes and tongues wherever it wants over his surface. All its matter has the potential to become these sort of features.
"It just chooses to create them on the face to arrange them in a way is more functional for a bipedal host. I wanted to give the idea of these features emerging and rearranging, lines of teeth moving and sliding around until they compose the final shape we all know." It's a shame we didn't see more of that green slime, eh?
So, yeah, that looks a lot like Carnage, right?
"I was tasked with concepting the whole symbiote final fight, mechanics and all, the way the Venom and his evil counterpart clash together and merge, until the final sacrifice scene after the rocket explosion," Giandoso explains. With that in mind, common sense says that Carnage was probably used as just a stand-in here.
"These images are a small section of a deleted scene from the beginning of the third act, in which Eddie confront his buddy about his hypocrisy and they finally make peace and move on to save the world," Giandoso notes. It would have been really cool to see this before the final battle but it arguably wasn't needed as these two managed to make amends in a somewhat simpler exchange.
Many thanks to artists David Masson, Matt Millard, and Paolo Giandoso.