Tom Hardy’s 2025 comments about a Venom and Spider-Man crossover underlines just how narrowly we missed having the iconic Marvel duo get a major on-screen meeting. Though often depicted as more of an antihero in the modern day, Venom has historically been one of Spider-Man’s most notorious and most popular enemies through both characters’ histories, be that in the pages of a comic or outside of it. As such, the prospect of the pair encountering each other once more onscreen has been a popular hope for a fair number of years now.
While Topher Grace’s Venom and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man faced off against one another in Spider-Man 3, many of the criticisms surrounding the film revolve around its depiction of Venom, suggesting a modern live-action movie take could provide a more universally successful iteration of the famous rivalry. That said, though, this has yet to come to fruition in the film world since, though recent comments from Tom Hardy – who played Venom throughout the Sony Spider-Man Universe Venom trilogy – underline just how near we got to his Marvel antihero finally meeting the webslinging hero.
Tom Hardy’s Venom Meeting Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Was Majorly Teased On-Screen, But Never Happened
It Seemed Tom Hardy & Tom Holland’s Marvel Characters Meeting Was Inevitable At One Point In Time
Had Hardy’s Venom and Holland’s Spider-Man never come close to meeting on-screen, the hopes for the two characters to cross paths would likely have been more subdued. However, Venom: The Last Dance‘s post-credits effectively meant the opposite was shown to viewers, as the story closed with Eddie Brock and Venom being sent from their own universe to the main MCU world, where they witnessed Holland’s Spider-Man swinging around on television, seemingly setting the stage for the Marvel hero to meet one of his most iconic enemies – and sometimes most iconic ally – on the big screen.
However, this exciting setup was basically paved over by Marvel’s later movie stories, with Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s own story sent Venom right back to his home universe without ever letting him actually interact with Spider-Man himself. This chain of events was criticized for being something of a cop-out given the build-up to Spider-Man and Venom meeting, and even the third Venom movie, Venom: The Last Dance, alluded to this being something of a weird series of story choices, with Venom declaring “I’m so done with this multiverse s**t.”
Given Spider-Man: No Way Home focused on a wide range of villains from previous Spider-Man movies – and bringing back the respective heroes of both other Spider-Man movie universes – it makes sense that there simply wasn’t time to have Venom also be a part of this story, and that the decision was made to send him back to his home universe in order to avoid narrative complication. With that said, dodging this opportunity is still undeniably a waste, and a waste that feels all the more like it could have been something else given Tom Hardy’s own comments about the prospect.
Tom Hardy’s 2025 Comments About A Venom & Spider-Man Crossover Make It Clear Just How Near We Got To The Iconic Duo Sharing The Screen Properly
The World Came Staggeringly Close To Seeing Spider-Man & Venom Meet Once More On-Screen
While discussing how close a crossover between Venom and Spider-Man got with The Playlist’s The Discourse podcast in March 2025, Tom Hardy adressed that there were conversations about the matter, but that they never fully came to fruition despite the ample potential of the idea, emphasizing that “We got close,” and explaining: “We got as close as I could possibly imagine getting, apart from doing a film together, which I would have loved to have done because that just means so much fun.“
Knowing that the behind-the-scenes conversations about the prospective crossover got as close as Hardy “could possibly imagine getting, apart from doing a film together” makes what actively came to pᴀss all the more tragic, as it’s clear we came staggeringly near to having an interaction that would have surely been a major deal, and that these movie teases could have blossomed into something far greater than what ended up happening. With Venom: The Last Dance killing off Venom as we knew him, it’s unlikely this can now happen in the same way, though the MCU has still left another chance open.
Avengers: Secret Wars Still Leaves Another Way The Venom & Spider-Man Crossover Could Properly Happen
The Multiverse Opens A Way For Hardy’s Venom To Meet Spider-Man Despite Venom: The Last Dance’s Ending
The Venom symbiote is shown to seemingly not be fully ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at the end of the third Venom movie, as a tiny fragment of the symbiote is shown on-screen in the post-credits scene of Venom: The Last Dance near a cockroach, suggesting a sliver of the creature could remain alive and potentially bond with the bug to begin a new path. With that said, the movie is repeatedly emphasized to be a sendoff of sorts for the Venom movie series, and it seems even if Venom is alive, it won’t be in the sense that we previously knew him in, especially now the Sony Spider-Man Universe appears to have ended.
Similarly, with Spider-Man 4 now confirmed to be Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it’s not clear if the symbiote fragment left in the MCU universe will be followed up on in this chapter of Spider-Man’s own story, despite one of the most popular fan theories about this movie previously being that it would introduce the MCU’s own version of Venom into its world. With that said, though, the Multiverse Saga opens up some real potential for Venom and Spider-Man to potentially get an MCU moment together on-screen.
Currently, Avengers: Secret Wars appears set to be the Multiverse Saga’s own version of Avengers: Endgame, as it’s already looking to be a gargantuan crossover story for the franchise that ends an era. Now we know Avengers: Doomsday‘s cast will feature a wide range of characters from the Fox X-Men universe – and that the Secret Wars movie is set to adapt the comics of the same name, which explore countless universes colliding in dangerous fashion – adding a version of Venom to this story seems entirely possible, especially since the original Secret Wars began the Venom symbiote storyline.
This could even mean that Tom Hardy’s Venom crossover hopes could finally come true despite Venom: The Last Dance‘s ending, as using a different universe’s Venom who is still played by Hardy would make sense, and the MCU has even set a precedent for this by having Hugh Jackman play a different variant of his original Wolverine in ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine. With that said, though, only time will tell what the future holds for what currently looks to be the biggest upcoming release of the MCU, though Venom appearing could well align with the plans for this epic conclusion to Marvel’s multiverse story.
Venom
- Created by
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David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane
- First Film
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Venom
- Latest Film
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Venom: Let There Be Carnage
- Upcoming Films
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Venom: The Last Dance
- Cast
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Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Naomie Harris, Riz Ahmed, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham
Summary
The Venom franchise is a series of superhero films based on the Marvel Comics character Venom, produced by Sony Pictures as part of their Spider-Man Universe. The franchise began with the 2018 film Venom, which tells the story of Eddie Brock, a journalist who becomes the host for an alien symbiote, giving him superhuman abilities. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success, leading to a sequel and further expansion of the franchise.
Upcoming MCU Movies
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Thunderbolts*
- Release Date
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May 2, 2025
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Release Date
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July 25, 2025
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Avengers: Doomsday (2026)
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- Release Date
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July 31, 2026
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Avengers: Secret Wars
- Release Date
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May 7, 2027
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