Venom: Let There Be Carnage ended with a confusing post-credits scene that saw Eddie Brock seemingly transported into the MCU where he took an immediate interest in Spider-Man.
Spider-Man: No Way Home later cleared things up by revealing that Doctor Strange's botched spell had pulled everyone who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man to Earth-616. The Venom sequel went some way in explaining why he might be among them due to the Symbiote telling Eddie it has hive knowledge across universes.
Despite that big tease, there was no sign of Venom in the threequel, with only a mid-credits scene showing Eddie being sent back to his own reality (after leaving a piece of the symbiote behind).
During a recent interview with GQ, Venom: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis chose his words carefully when asked about the crossover. "It was unsure as to the level of involvement that world would meet with our world," he attempts to explain. "There were drafts which had more, a little more, of the other. The unspoken."
The "unspoken" is a reference to Spider-Man, of course, and the filmmaker would add that the wall-crawler's cameo "was very, very carefully chosen."
It was, in fact, so carefully chosen that it didn't make any sense. A news report with the unmasked Spidey just looking around didn't factor into No Way Home and, while it could have happened off-screen, it didn't feel natural. It's also hard to figure out why Sony set the stage for a meeting that never actually took place despite the movies being released just months apart.
For what it's worth, Serkis knows this is just the kind of thing that happens with big IPs.
"Working for a long time as a director on those things, you’re a custodian. You have a piece of IP for a particular length of time. I think we have to realise that it’s not ultimately an auteur experience. So you have to shift gears and pour as much creativity as you can into that environment, knowing that you’re looking after that franchise for a particular time and then it will be passed on."
You can check out our Venom: Let There Be Carnage interview with Serkis in the player below.