When Sony Pictures released Venom in 2018, Spider-Man was already in the MCU. There were rumours that Tom Holland's Peter Parker was meant to be among those visiting the Life Foundation on a school trip, though it obviously never happened.
Then, in Venom: Let There Be Carnage's post-credits scene, Tom Holland's Eddie Brock was transported to the MCU where Venom took an immediate interest in the hero. Despite that, there was no sign of him in Spider-Man: No Way Home until another post-credits scene sent the anti-hero home...but not before he left a small piece of the Symbiote behind.
Venom: The Last Dance kinda, sorta retconned that, and the last time Spider-Man and Venom shared the screen remains 2007's Spider-Man 3.
Earlier this week, Hardy strongly hinted that a crossover nearly became a reality. However, the actor has suddenly walked back those comments in an interview with AP News.
"People embellish a story. I just said I would have loved to work with 'Spider-Man,' but it never happened, which is a fact," the actor said. "It hasn’t happened. And I’m no longer working with 'Venom' ... it is a shame because my kids would love to watch Venom and Spider-Man together. I would have liked that."
For clarity, here's what Hardy was quoted as saying a few days ago:
"We got close. We got as close as I could possibly imagine getting, apart from doing a film together, which I would have loved to have done because that just means so much fun."
"Fundamentally, for me, it would be for the kids. Because, you know, as much as adults love superhero films, as you can tell by the box office when they’re successful, 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."
"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. And in that [regard], we did what we could and what we loved doing."
"We poured all of ourselves into it within the remits of what we were allowed to do with him. And so the enjoyment of the work outweighed the limits of our possibilities with him because we just focused on what we were allowed to do. And we loved doing it."
So, were his remarks taken out of context? Not intentionally, perhaps, but when he says they got close, it's just as likely that Hardy was referring to the post-credits scenes mentioned above rather than any behind-the-scenes discussions.
While it's true that the team working on the Venom franchise likely had to deal with several "boundaries" meant to distance the Lethal Protector from Spider-Man (including his origin story, powers, and appearance), those stingers were surely meant only to increase interest in Sony's movies. After all, why would Kevin Feige want to infect Marvel Studios' movies with a property that received negative reviews from fans and critics alike?
We still don't know why Sony couldn't reference or use a different Spidey to bring Venom more in line with his comic book counterpart, though rumours continue to swirl that Peter will get his alien suit in one of the upcoming Avengers movies.
Are you disappointed that Hardy's Venom never got to share the screen with Holland's Spider-Man?