In 2018, Venom kicked off Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, comprising movies featuring lesser-known characters Sony owns the rights to. Unfortunately, movies centered around Morbius and Madame Web were both financial and critical failures.
Still, the most recent film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, Venom: The Last Dance, claims to be the final film featuring the only bankable character they currently have for this franchise. So, this begs the question… where will Sony’s Spider-Man Universe go after Venom: The Last Dance?
WARNING: If you have not seen Venom: The Last Dance, stop reading now, as this article contains massive SPOILERS for the final film in the trilogy.
At the end of Venom: The Last Dance, Venom sacrifices himself to save Eddie, kill the remaining monsters, and destroy the Codex. We then have an “emotional” ending of Eddie visiting the Statue of Liberty — a moment that he and his buddy had discussed sharing (several times throughout the film, mind you). As the title implies, this is set to be the final outing for the symbiote.
The finale of The Last Dance also sees most of the other symbiotes killed by the symbiote-killing monsters that served as the film’s main antagonists. The only symbiote that emerges unscathed is the one that was carried by Dr. Payne (Juno Temple). However, is this symbiote — not one of the more well-known in the comic books — enough to carry the franchise? It’s doubtful.
However, the most important development of Venom: The Last Dance is the introduction of Knull. Knull is the creator of the symbiotes and is depicted in The Last Dance as having been locked away by the symbiotes. However, now that most of the symbiotes are out of the picture, and the supposed only way for Knull to escape his prison is to have gotten a Codex, the franchise will have to fall back on a lot of plot contrivances to make him an overarching villain for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
Venom: The Last Dance offers little more in terms of a connection to the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although the post-credits scene of Let There Be Carnage saw Eddie Brock and Venom transported to Earth-616, and the opening of The Last Dance sees them jokingly reflect on the experience, nothing substantial is made of the symbiote that was left behind in the MCU’s world in the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
I suppose this leaves the door open for Venom to make a return — at least in the MCU — it seems likely to be with a different host than Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock. (If we had our way, we would see the introduction of Agent Venom with Tony Revolori’s Flash Thompson.)
It is disappointing that The Last Dance did not further continue the tease from Morbius’s post-credits scene, in which Michael Keaton’s Vulture recruits Jared Leto’s Morbius for a secretive project (which we all know is the Sinister Six). The powers that be at Sony have long been trying to make a Sinister Six film, and while that set-up in Morbius didn’t exactly make canonical sense, fans are still clamoring to see one of the most iconic supervillain teams in comic book history brought to the big screen.
As for the standalone Sony Spider-Man Universe, we know at least the next two projects that are coming out. After several delays related to the WGA/SAG strikes, Kraven the Hunter — starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the iconic Spidey villain — will finally hit theaters in December. After that, we will get the Spider-Noir series featuring Nicolas Cage reprising his Spider-Verse role in live-action. Will these projects tie into the greater arc that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is building towards? Or will they be mostly standalone? Only time will tell.
What is the future of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe?
What do you think? Will Knull become the “big bad” of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe? Or will they leave him behind now that Venom and most of the symbiotes are gone? Where do you think the franchise will go from here after Kraven the Hunter? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
