Given the specific ways several different movies set up Spider-Man and Venom meeting in some capacity in the MCU's near future, I think I'd be seriously surprised if we got past 2027 without the two having met or interacted on-screen together. Venom is one of Spider-Man's most prominent antagonists - and sometimes one of his more prominent allies, on a good day. However, despite this status, and despite the popularity of Venom more broadly speaking, the pair's interactions on the big screen have been notably limited.
Spider-Man 3 provided an interesting take on Venom's origin story and mythos, but one that proved divisive among audiences all the same, in part because the symbiote was one of several villains who fought for screentime in the film. the MCU timeline now seems more teed up for a meeting between Spider-Man and the Marvel symbiote than ever before.
Avengers: Secret Wars Makes The Concept Of Spider-Man's Symbiote Story Happening More Likely Than Ever
While the fragment of the Venom symbiote left in the MCU after Spider-Man: No Way Home alone feels like a pretty big tease of Tom Holland's Spider-Man soon facing or interacting with the Venom symbiote in the future, this by itself isn't substantive proof the MCU is set to handle this storyline anytime soon. With Scorpion's teases of a notable MCU future in Spider-Man: Homecoming still being essentially unused almost 10 years later, we've seen that sometimes story threads can be left dangling for some time, especially when they have Sony Spider-Man Universe ties.
However, this coming as the MCU builds up to 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars and its adaptation of the Marvel Comics stories of the same name makes this decision all the more seemingly impossible to ignore. With the original black symbiote suit Spider-Man story having its inception in the original Secret Wars comic story - that sees Peter gain what he believes to be a sort of upgraded suit, only to later discover said "costume" is in fact a living alien creature - Avengers: Secret Wars is in prime position to adapt this story into the MCU and finally properly bring Venom in.
Avengers: Secret Wars could choose to ignore this part of the original comic story - especially since it seems like it may be drawing from the older and newer stories with the Secret Wars title - but glossing over one of the most lastingly important parts of the original would seem like something of a waste. Since the Avengers movies are no doubt looking to mirror some of the spectacle of Avengers: Endgame, it also seems that having Holland's hero and one of his most famous villains finally properly meet would make sense, particularly with this pre-existing backdrop already in mind.
Now The Sony Spider-Man Universe Is Over, There's Even More Reason For Venom To Enter The MCU Properly
Venom being the focal player in the Sony Spider-Man Universe certainly didn't seem to make the prospect of the symbiote and Holland's Peter Parker coming to face seem impossible. Indeed, they almost met in the brief crossover provided by Tom Hardy's Venom traveling universes in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, only for Venom to return home thanks to the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home without having ever met the webslinger in person. However, it's easy to see how this approach did make things more complicated for this story prospect, since it would have forcibly blended the two universes further.
Venom: The Last Dance also joked about Venom's extremely short and seemingly somewhat pointless appearance in the MCU timeline, underlining how it was a missed opportunity of sorts to capitalize on the potential of having Venom and Spider-Man meet.
Now, though, the concept of Spider-Man meeting Venom seems decidedly different. Following the release of 2024's Kraven The Hunter, it seems as though the Sony Spider-Man Universe has come to an end, with Venom: The Last Dance appearing to close out the antihero's story - even though it teases the prospect of the symbiote living on - and the franchise's other offerings having generally fared poorly when it comes to both their box offices and their overall critical reception.
As such, there seems to be more potential leeway in of having Spider-Man and Venom's stories intertwine in a way that isn't complicated via Venom being the star of his own film series. In fact, having the fragments of the Venom symbiote play their own role in the events of Spider-Man's future could be the best way to simultaneously nod to the Venom trilogy and what came before - letting fans of the series get a spiritual successor of sorts - while also building a new path forward for the MCU and its story that doesn't need to tie in as directly to the Sony Spider-Man Universe.
Spider-Man: No Way Home's Ending Means Spider-Man Meeting The Venom Symbiote Would Mean Way More Now
Spider-Man: No Way Home is significant for Venom's potential future not just in of the residual parts of the symbiote left in the universe towards the end of the movie, but also in the sense that the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home aligns itself well with Peter meeting the symbiote or being most affected by its influence. With Peter having lost essentially all of his loved ones and the bonds that balanced him as a person, the film closes on a bittersweet note, suggesting the young hero's life is going to get a lot harder from now on.
This kind of postioning for Spider-Man's story tees him up effectively to meet the symbiote at a point in his MCU arc wherein it would be most emotionally effective, and where audiences would contextually understand any weakness he shows to the symbiote's influence to be reflective of the recent tragedies we've seen him experience. Similarly, with fewer people who are aware of his double-life and who could potentially best see something like the symbiote affecting him, there's a lot more room for a Venom story to make sense in this chapter of Peter's life.
With so many other proverbial story plates to balance, there is, of course, always the chance that the MCU simply won't have time to capitalize on how the current setup and trajectory of the franchise seems custom-made to make a meeting of some kind between the MCU's Spider-Man and Venom happen. However, with Spider-Man being one of the franchise's biggest - and most financially lucrative - heroes, there's certainly a lot of incentive to bring a major storyline of his to the forefront, especially if it can also serve the added benefit of helping enhance the overall Multiverse Saga.
- Created by
- Kevin Feige
- First Film
- Iron Man
- Films
- Avengers: Secret Wars
- First TV Show
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- TV Shows
- Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Vision Quest
- Cast
- Jonathan Majors
