The superhero genre continues to be wildly popular, with a number of shared universes in play. In addition to the MCU (which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription), there's also Sony's Spider-Man Universe. The latter featured Tom Hardy's Venom trilogy, and fans waited years for his title character to finally crossover with Tom Holland's Spider-Man. I finally watched The Last Dance (streaming with a Netflix subscription), and I've got to say that the way the franchise teased and abandoned this plot line feels like a slap in the face.
Venom: The Last Dance's credits scene saw Eddie Brock transported to Earth-616 as a result of Doctor Strange's spell from Spider-Man: No Way Home. It seemed like Spider-Man and Venom were meant to finally meet... but that never happened. Instead the crossover is abandoned, and Venom: The Last Dance begins with him immediately being brought back to his own universe: Earth-688.
So despite fans calling for a crossover and years-long teases that this would happen, Sony totally bailed in Spider-Man and Venom meeting on the big screen. Peter Parker has yet to appear in any of the Sony universe, such as titles like Madame Web, Morbius, and Kraven The Hunter. Now that Venom: The Last Dance was been released and the franchise has seemingly ended, it feels like Peter Parker and Eddie Brock will simply never get to cross paths on the big screen.
Perhaps this shouldn't be a surprise, given Holland's noticeable absence from the rest of that shared universe. But the fact that the studio made those credits scenes to fake us out feels just plain mean. Doing that type of set-up and never offering the actual payoff is a tough pill to swallow, especially while we see crossovers in other shared universes like the MCU and former DCEU.
Venom and Spider-Man are two characters who have always been synonymous, and there were rumors and hopes of their crossover for the entirety of the Venom trilogy. Despite folks within the franchise offering hope through the years, Tom Hardy addressed never getting meeting Spider-Man on the big screen. He offered:
I dunno. There are things that are candid responses to that, but they'd still be just guessing. You know, just guessing. I honestly don't know. I think in that aspect, I think it's way above my pay grade but not my interest grade. I want that too.
Despite whatever wanting is there, fans probably shouldn't hold their collective breaths that we ever get to see Holland and Hardy together on screen as their respective comic book characters. With the multiverse take center stage in the MCU, it feels like just about anything is possible, but legal issues might be in the way of Eddie Brock getting in on the fun. Alas, don't expect the crossover to be in one of the 2025 movie releases.
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