Spider-Man has one of the biggest rogues gallery in all of comic book history, but he has a particularly close connection to Venom. Peter Parker brought the Venom symbiote back to Earth, but when he realized the alien was trying to permanently bond with him, he rid himself of it. The creature then attached itself to Eddie Brock, and thus Venom was born. So you'd think that in a movie about Venom's origin story, Spider-Man would play an important role. However, Venom is taking a self-contained approach with showing Eddie Brock's transformation into the monstrous anti-hero, and while there have been rumors that Peter Parker might at least cameo in the movie, director Ruben Fleischer has seemingly implied that the Web-Slinger will not be present. In Fleischer's words:
This feels very much like Venom's movie. It's the introduction of the character. As to where it will go in future movies, and who he'll run across, I can't say.
Ever since the Venom movie was announced to be officially moving forward, there had been conflicting information on whether or not it exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Last year, producer Amy Pascal suggested that Venom will stay unconnected from the other Marvel franchise, although Sony reportedly considers its Spider-verse to be "adjunct" to Spider-Man: Homecoming and the rest of the MCU. So from there, it seemed like the chances were slim, but not impossible, that Spider-Man would show up in Venom, and Ruben Fleischer's comment to Empire indicate that it's highly unlikely Tom Holland will reprise Peter Parker, even for a quick appearance. So if you're looking for a movie where Spider-Man is indirectly responsible for Venom's creation, you'll have to stick with Spider-Man 3.
Despite the lack of Spider-Man, Venom is still including a fair amounts of elements from the character's comic book history. Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock is an investigative journalist, he has a relationship with Ann Weying, the symbiote is an alien from outer space, Eddie will be clashing with The Life Foundation, and because Planet of the Symbiotes is one of the movie's main inspirations, that suggests we might see Venom battling other people who've been taken over by symbiotes. It's also rumored that Woody Harrelson, who is only in "a little fraction" of Venom, is playing Cletus Kasady, better known in the comics as Carnage. Assuming this Carnage information is true, then should Venom be a commercial success, then it sounds like we would see Eddie and Cletus duke it out in Venom 2. Alas, barring any future changes, it doesn't look like Spider-Man will have any role to play in these particular shenanigans, but it's okay. He has enough to keep himself busy in the MCU.
Venom hits theaters on October 5, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates. In the meantime, feel free to look through our 2018 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out this year.
