In Venom: Let There Be Carnage's mid-credits scene, Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote found themselves suddenly teleported to another world. The dive motel they'd been staying in became a luxury resort, while a news report on television confirmed that the duo had landed in a reality the Spectacular Spider-Man - outed as Peter Parker by J. Jonah Jameson - calls home.
The insinuation, of course, is that the spell Doctor Strange casts in Spider-Man: No Way Home (which brings all those familiar villains into the Marvel Cinematic Universe) also pulled in Venom.
We're assuming he'll stick around the MCU for a clash with Tom Holland's web-slinger, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has now revealed to Collider that plans to use Venom began shortly after the Lethal Protector's first movie was released in 2018. "You look at the obvious comic connotations between Venom and Spider-Man and it is inherent," he began.
"So the minute Sony made their Venom movie and it worked as well as it did," the prolific producer and executive continued, "and Tom Hardy became as iconic as he has become as Venom, then the obvious question is then, 'How do we start to merge them?'"
You have to believe the stage is being set for the fourth Spider-Man movie to either give Peter his own black costume, or to pit the wall-crawler against Venom in a knockdown brawl. Whatever the case may be, we win as fans, and the future is looking undeniably exciting for both characters. Plus, you just know Eddie will be in good hands with the Marvel Studios team!
Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in U.S. on December 17 and in the UK on December 15.