It was an unusual weekend at the box office for Sony Pictures. The studio had to dig a shallow grave for Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis’ Here, an experimental trip through the generations that doesn’t move its camera from one spot. The movie opened to a paltry $5 million, thanks largely to tepid reviews. At the same, Sony continued to celebrate the success of the third and final Venom film, Venom: The Last Dance. After dropping 48 percent from its opening weekend gross, Venom: The Last Dance banked $26 million to push its domestic cume to $90 million, and its international take to a hefty $317 million.
Imagine how much money the Venom movies could have earned if they ever bothered to include Spider-Man?
Now that the Venom trilogy is finished, I will never understand how Sony allowed three films to be made in this franchise, and never once figured out – or bothered to try to figure out – how to pit Tom Hardy and his symbiote against their natural antagonist, Spider-Man. During the press rounds for this latest movie, Hardy was asked why this face-off never happened – despite him teasing it again, and again, and again, and again. You get the idea. And Hardy copped out completely by saying:
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.
Then do it! If you want it, do it. Why didn’t they ever do it? Why didn’t they ever put Spider-Man in the Venom movies? Until Hardy or his co-writer/director Kelly Marcel speak up, we may never know.
Given the fact that Tom Hardy keeps telling press that he wanted a crossover to happen, I’m going to have to assume that the studio blocked his intentions. Maybe it was Sony? More likely, it was Marvel, so that they can do the symbiote storyline in the MCU some day. But there are two easy ways to use Spider-Man in the Venom movies.
Use Andrew Garfield or Tobey Maguire
Once the classic Spider-Man actors were re-introduced in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it would have been very easy for them to portal back to their universes, and have ONE of those universes be the Venom universe. Granted, that kind of contradicts the fact that Venom saw Tom Holland on the television set in a mid-credits scene and pretended to know who he was. But nothing ever came of that tease, so why worry about continuity?
Personally, my vote would have been to allow Andrew Garfield to continue on as the Spider-Man of this tangential Spider-Man universe. You could have set him up to face off against Venom, Kraven the Hunter, Michael Keaton’s Vulture, an actual Rhino (as is being teased in the Kraven trailer), Morbius, and countless others. And it would not interfere in any way with whatever plans Kevin Feige has for Tom Holland and Spider-Man 4.
But let’s say Sony wanted a clean slate. They had a pretty good option there, too.
Introduce a Live-Action Miles Morales
Think about the plot of Venom: The Last Dance. Once you’ve stopped giggling, let me ask you: Wouldn’t you trade Rex Strickland, Area 51, Mrs. Chen in Las Vegas, and the traveling hippies (led by Rhys Ifans, who is The Lizard in this universe, but THAT’S not addressed either) for a subplot involving Miles Morales, instead?
If developed properly, the Venom movies – and all of these Sony Spider-Man movies – could and should be used to bring Miles Morales to life in live-action. Audiences know Miles now thanks to the animated Spider-Verse films. And if Sony wanted a Spider-Man in their Venom films, again, without disrupting the plans of Marvel and the MCU, using Miles could have been a solution.
Instead, we actually got three Venom movies that have no Spider-Man in them. Teases for Spider-Man, but absolutely zero inclusion. It’s beyond comprehension to me. It’d be like making two Joker movies that don’t include Batman… or either The Joker.
Talk about a terrible idea.
Venom: The Last Dance remains in theaters. But for your next trip to the movies, here’s our list of upcoming 2024 films, to help you plan an evening.
