Venom 3 hits theaters this weekend, concluding Sony’s first Spider-Man-adjacent trilogy. Spider-Man is the main reason I’m interested in Venom 3, though Tom Hardy’s starring role is also why I’ll eventually see this movie.
However, I’m a much bigger fan of the MCU than Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU), and that’s the only reason The Last Dance is important to me right now. Like certain versions of Spider-Man, Venom is now a shared character between Marvel’s MCU and SSU. It all happened with Venom 2 and No Way Home, which featured credits scenes that connected the two universes.
Those scenes set up expectations that Venom 3 and Spider-Man 4 would be connected even before we saw rumors suggesting a big relationship between the two movies. Credits scenes are one way to do that, of course. With Venom 3 playing in theaters, those scenes have leaked, and they confirm previous rumors.
Before I tell you how Venom 3 connects to Spider-Man 4, you should know that big The Last Dance spoilers will follow below.
Many of the rumors we saw in the past few weeks said that Sony would turn Knull (Andy Serkis), the big villain of Venom 3, into an overarching multiversal threat who will return in Spider-Man 4. Thus, the next Spidey MCU adventure would become a multiverse flick featuring Tom Hardy’s Venom.
Older Spider-Man 4 rumors said Sony wanted Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield to return after No Way Home.
None of that is confirmed, but No Way Home does set up the reappearance of Venom in the MCU. As a reminder, a part of the symbiote was left in this reality when Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) performed the spell that returned the characters to their original timelines while also making everyone in the Earth-616 reality forget who Peter Parker is.
It’s likely that part of Venom resides in the MCU somewher. We just haven’t seen it yet.
Moving on to Venom 3, The Last Dance has two credit scenes that follow the main action in the movie. FandomWire confirmed a recent leak that said the scenes feature Knull and the bartender from No Way Home.
In the first, you’ll get to see Knull, the God of the symbiotes. But the same symbiotes trapped him in a prison. The only way to escape is with a key named the Codex, which resides inside Venom. The Last Dance ends with Venom seemingly dying, which is one way to destroy said key.
Knull thinks Venom is dead, so he plans to attack Earth and destroy the planet. But even if the Venom in that reality is truly gone, a part of him remains in a different reality. So, can Knull really escape his prison if Venom is alive anywhere in the multiverse? That’s the first connection to Spider-Man 4, as it potentially sets up Knull as a massive threat that Tom Holland’s Peter Parker might have to face.
But that’s not the only connection between the SSU and the MCU. There’s a second credits scene right at the end of the movie.
Cristo Fernández, who played the bartender in the No Way Home credits scene featuring Venom and Eddie, is back. He apparently witnessed Eddie traveling between universes and saw Venom’s tentacles emerge from his back to make a cocktail.
Obviously, this can’t be the same bartender from the MCU, but the variant from the reality where Venom 3 happens.
Still, the bartender ends up in Area 51 after he describes his encounter with Venom to the military. Area 51 is destroyed during the final battle of The Last Dance, with the bartender emerging from a bunker. As he walks out looking for help, a cockroach appears in the foreground, and we find out the bug contains a symbiote.
Could this be Venom or a variant of it? We don’t have the answer to that. What’s clear here is that Sony is placing the right hooks in Venom 3 to strengthen the relationship between its universe and the MCU.
