“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” is mere days away from hitting theaters. And you would think the biggest discussion would be how the film finally introduces one of the most popular villains, Carnage, in Marvel history. But nope. All people want to know about is just when Sony’s “Venom” franchise is going to crossover with Marvel Studios’ “Spider-Man?” Well, according to actor Tom Hardy, it’s something everyone wants to happen, but there’s no rush, yet.
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Speaking to ScreenRant, Tom Hardy was asked about the possibility of “Venom” crossing over with “Spider-Man” in the future. As you probably know, the movie rights for “Spider-Man” is a bit of a weird situation, as Sony controls the rights but made a deal with Marvel Studios to produce films that would put the character firmly in the MCU. However, Marvel Studios doesn’t work on the ‘Spider-Man’ spinoff films like “Venom” and the forthcoming “Morbius.” So, there’s this weird nebulous situation where “Venom” kinda-sorta links to “Spider-Man” without formally saying it, while “Spider-Man” makes no mention of “Venom.”
Long story short, it’s a bit of a continuity shitshow. And Hardy thinks all he can do to help it happen is make “Venom” the best damn film franchise that it can be.
“Yeah, it’s really hard because for me and the guys in the ‘Venom’-verse, we came together under Sony and that’s who we work for, that’s who we run with, that’s our team, you know?” said Hardy. “And obviously we just look at it as creatives and say, ‘Look at all of these things we could play with.’ But we really have to establish ourselves as somebody that maybe they want to play with. Maybe somebody that belongs in that world first. And do you like what we represent as Venom? Is this established? Once it’s established, we then have to continue our ‘Venom’-verse.”
He continued, “But at the same time, we will always looking to campaign to play with that with all the brothers and sisters who are out there, do you know what I mean? Whether we can connect the dots, that’s up to the constellations, and that’s above my pay grade, but we would be remiss not to think about that when we’re working on the material.”
Clearly, the folks at Sony and those working on “Venom” want the crossover to happen. It would be a huge success financially for the studio and all involved. But creatively, there’s a lot of work that has to happen first before it even makes sense for that to happen. Namely, Marvel Studios would likely have to depart the equation, and it doesn’t seem like that’s happening soon, as Tom Holland’s Peter Parker has a couple of performances in the MCU still to come, with maybe more after that.
Either way, the moral of the story is to just enjoy “Venom” and the sequel on their own merits and don’t hold your breath for a massive Spidey crossover. “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” arrives in theaters on October 1.