The fans want it, the actors involved with both franchises want it, and studio higher-ups at Marvel and Sony have promised that it will happen some day. Even so, after six movies featuring the characters releasing under the Sony Pictures banner over the past few years, we have yet to see Venom and Spider-Man interact on the big screen.
Despite rumors that Tom Hardy and Tom Holland were set to show up in each other's franchises at various points, the closest we've come to any kind of crossover is Eddie Brock getting (briefly) zapped to MCU’s Earth-616 thanks to Doctor Strange’s botched spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
While speaking to The Playlist, Hardy confirmed that there were early plans in place for some kind of Spidey/Venom crossover movie, and it came very close to happening.
“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,” he went on. “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.”
Hardy alluded to "studio politics" being to blame for the project being shelved.
“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,” he continued. “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.”
Could we still see Spidey face off against Venom at some point in the future? The Last Dance was reportedly the final movie in the franchise (and Kraven the Hunter may have been the final nail in the entire SSU's coffin), but that doesn't mean the Symbiote won't return down the line, even if Hardy's Eddie Brock isn't the host.
“Eddie and Venom are on the run," reads the synopsis. "Hunted by both their worlds and with net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtain down on Venom and Eddie’s last day”
In addition to Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road; The Dark Knight Rises) in his dual roles as Eddie Brock and the voice of the Venom symbiote, the supporting cast features Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave; Doctor Strange), Juno Temple (Atonement; Ted Lasso), Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill; The Amazing Spider-Man), Peggy Lu (Venom; Crazy Rich Asians), Alanna Ubach (Legally Blonde; Coco), Stephen Graham (The Irishman; Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Clark Backo (Supernatural; The Changeling), and Cristo Fernández (Ted Lasso; Spider-Man: No Way Home).