The superhero genre is showing no signs of losing power, with a number of shared universes at play. In addition to the MCU (which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription), there's also Sony's Spider-Man Universe, which unfortunately has never actually featured Tom Holland's Peter Parker. For years fans wanted to see Spidey and Venom interact, and Tom Hardy's latest comments about that crossover are downright maddening.
Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order will recall how it looked like a Venom and Spider-Man crossover was happening, largely thank to Venom 2's credits scene. But in the end it didn't happen, and Venom 3 basically begins by course-correcting and retconning that plot. While appearing on The Playlist's podcast, Hardy spoke about how the Spidey/Venom concept ultimately went down, offering:
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. And for all the reasons that you explained ultimately in there... Fundamentally, for me, it would be for the kids. 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
It's almost as if... they should have had that damn crossover! While I wanted to see these characters paired as a comic fan, the specific way that the 47 year-old actor addressed this pairing is driving me a little bit crazy.
After seeing how Venom: The Last Dance just ignored the multiversal narrative that the last movie began, I was personally frustrated that they set up the crossover at all. It would have been easy for Tom Hardy's trilogy to simply never address Peter Parker, just as other titles in the universe did like Morbius and Madame Web. At least then there wouldn't be years of waiting and wondering about when Venom and Spider-Man would finally meet.
While Hardy says "we got close", by having two short scenes were Eddie Brock temporarily traveled to Earth-616, I think instead it just put a spotlight on a failing by the studios. They knew what fans wanted and simply couldn't deliver.
Another part of Hardy's comments that I found puzzling were the discussions about young fans. Because while its true that kids would love to see Venom and Spider-Man back on the big screen, his trilogy of movies weren't necessarily kid friendly. Because while they're all rated PG-13, the titular symbiote is literally eating people's heads. So I've venture to say that the age of Venom fans skews slightly higher than other superhero franchises.
It certainly seems like Hardy's tenure as Venom has come to an end, and we shouldn't expect to see him in upcoming Marvel movies on the 2025 movie release list or beyond.
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