Like Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage before it, Venom: The Last Dance didn't boast the strongest screenplay. That was evident when the Symbiote, on the run from the Xenophage, fully transformed for a dance number despite repeatedly saying that doing so would bring the near-unstoppable monster bearing down on him.
In the opening few minutes of the threequel, Eddie Brock is sent back to his reality following a brief trip to Earth-616; however, in an unexpected and still-unexplained retcon, he travels through a portal like the ones Knull uses rather than the glowing effect seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home's post-credits stinger.
In a newly revealed deleted scene from Venom: The Last Dance, we find Eddie travelling through the apparent void between realities. A shadowy creature, presumably a Xenophage, spots the Lethal Protector and his Codex, likely revealing how the King in Black learned of its existence.
Why was this left on the cutting room floor? There are a few possible explanations but this does seem to confirm theories that Knull is a Multiversal threat who is trapped between realities rather than in the universe Venom calls home. With Spider-Man 4 rumoured to feature Venom and Knull, it may even explain how he travels to the Sacred Timeline.
A popular theory online is that Peter Parker will die in battle before the Symbiote restores him, thereby creating another Codex.
"Well, Knull created the Xenophage and he also created the Symbiotes," Venom: The Last Dance writer and director Kelly Marcel told us a couple of months ago. "I kind of loved the idea that the thing that was hunting Venom and Eddie is Venom’s sister. I think the Xenophage is a she."
"We referred to her as Elaine during the shooting. I just loved the idea of them and then as Tom and I were discussing the character of the Xenophage, we came up with the idea that they had these woodchipper mouths and whatever they ate spat out the back of some vent in her head."
"As soon as we came up with that, we just thought that would be the most fun thing to see on screen and that she would be an awesome thing to fight for them," the filmmaker concluded.
Watch the deleted scene below and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel's greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy.
Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie's last dance.
The movie stars Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Graham, and Rhys Ifans. Kelly Marcel directs from a screenplay she wrote, based on a story by Hardy and Marcel. The film is produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy and Hutch Parker.
Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters.