After the failure of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” in 2014, Sony Pictures appeared to put its bold plans for a Spider-Man universe on hold.
Then, following the success of their collaboration with Marvel on 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” those plans were revived. It resulted in 2018’s “Venom”, which proved a box-office hit despite mixed reviews.
Two more “Venom” films ensued, ending with last year’s “Venom: The Last Dance” which effectively ends the franchise. Combined with Sony’s other non-Venom or Spidey Marvel films proving disasters – from “Madame Web” to “Morbius” to “Kraven the Hunter” – Sony’s Spider-Man universe seems to be dead again.
Though there’s some references, the only real connection between “Venom” and Marvel’s MCU films is post-credits scenes in “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home”. In a new interview with Esquire while promoting his new series “MobLand,” “Venom” leading man Tom Hardy talked about the crossover that never happened:
I loved playing Eddie in Venom. Juggling chainsaws. Put me on a unicycle and throw everything at me! I was just really trying to push myself as much as I could. But I had no Spider-Man! No Avengers! It’s just us. Until those bridges are crossed… That’s way beyond my control. And I’d love to do that, but that’s not even a conversation to have at my level, of just being an actor in that world.
That’s the game. We played in the Sony counterpoint to Disney’s Marvel panoply, of which [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige has a huge amount of cards, and Sony has a huge amount of cards in its own right, including Spider-Man, and then there’s just no crossover. We’d love to cross over! That’s not happened. That’s what happens, and it’s one of those things.”
With Holland’s Spider-Man returning for “Spider-Man: Brave New Day” and at least one of the new “Avengers” films, where things might go with some form of Venom eventually popping up in the MCU aren’t clear.
