The small print in the current contract between Sony and Marvel Studios has never been made public, so it’s unclear who’s allowed to do what without risking the wrath of whom. That being said, the buildup for Venom: Let There Be Carnage has made things more transparent than they’ve arguably ever been.
We knew that Tom Holland signed a six-picture deal for three solo co-productions and a further trio of guest spots in Marvel Cinematic Universe crossovers, with everyone expecting him to show up in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters eventually. The franchise was recently rebranded into Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, so it’s effectively a given.
Then, Tom Hardy and director Andy Serkis began teasing all sorts of crossovers on the Let There Be Carnage press circuit, while December’s Spider-Man: No Way Home features Sony villains being plucked from all corners of the multiverse. Does that mean Eddie Brock could end up playing in the MCU’s multiple realities? Tom Hardy seems to hope so, as per ScreenRant.
“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? 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. 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.”
That’s a very long-winded “maybe,” but it’s presumably based on Sony and Marvel hashing out new deals to continue sharing their assets. Spider-Man and Venom will definitely face off eventually, but things are much cloudier when it comes to the symbiotic superhero crossing paths with the various members of the Avengers in a non-Sony project. We’d love to see it happen though, so let’s hope something gets worked out behind the scenes to make it a reality.
