Venom: Let There Be Carnage
crushed the box office during the opening weekend, setting a pandemic record with its $90 million take. While the sequel was highly anticipated, there’s no question that its success wouldn’t be possible without Spider-Man. Venom 2 is part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which is the studio’s equivalent to Marvel’s MCU. Sony can only use Spider-Man characters it owns the rights to for this ambitious universe of stories. That’s why it has to link all these movies between them. The most important connection concerns Peter Parker. That’s why Venom has that brilliant No Way Home hook in it. And the No Way Home official social media accounts are already responding to it. Mind you, some spoilers might follow below.
The SSU connections
That Venom 2 has a No Way Home link should not surprise fans. It’s something they anticipate. The SSU only works if all these films are part of a bigger storyline. Even if you know that there’s a Venom 2 post-credits scene with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in it, that’s not really a spoiler. It’s something we’ve all expecting from Sony execs. And it so happens that Sony wanted the Spider-Man Easter egg in the movie from the early days of shooting. Andy Serkis explained it all a few days ago:
Yeah, of course, it was something that they talked about from before I even came on to the movie. There were moments where he [Spider-Man] was going to be in the story, potentially, and then he wasn’t. But no, we decided that we wanted to really examine the Venom-verse first. So as we were going through principal photography, the inevitable discussions had to be had, but it wasn’t until very, very late on that we reached the precise notion of the teaser that we wanted to lay in there.
From the moment Sony’s “Universe” plans were official, it was clear that we should be seeking Easter eggs that will connect movies like Venom and Morbius to Spider-Man. And we expected Sony to want to combine these movies to a particular Peter Parker variant. That’s Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, of course. The MCU Spider-Man is Sony’s most successful Spider-Man story because it’s part of the MCU.
Sony started teasing the SSU connections in Morbius and Venom 2 trailers. And now we know the latter ties directly to Far From Home and No Way Home, practically bringing Venom/Eddie Brock to the MCU.
Moreover, rumors say that the opposite is true as well. One of the No Way Home post-credits scenes should feature Venom. That’s another plot element that makes sense. After all, Sony really wants all these SSU movies to become huge successes by associating them to Spider-Man.
No Way Home’s Venom teaser
The No Way Home credits scene featuring Venom is only a rumor at this point. But we already have indirect evidence in real life that seems to confirm everything.
It all started a few days ago when Tom Holland teased Venom 2 in an Instagram story. The actor congratulated Andy Serkis and Tom Hardy on premiere night, cheekily ending the message with a question. “Are the rumors true?” Holland smirked.
The rumors, of course, refer to the fact that Holland appears in the movie. He is in Spidey suit on TV during a segment of J. Jonah Jameson’s show at the end of Far From Home. It’s all part of the Venom 2 credits scene where Venom and Eddie are transported to the MCU.
If that’s not enough, it gets even better and more official than that. Sony tweeted from the official Spider-Man: No Way Home Twitter account the following message.
so… anyone see any good movies lately?
— Spider-Man: No Way Home (@SpiderManMovie) October 4, 2021
“So… anyone see any good movies lately?” the No Way Home account asks rhetorically. Sony is promoting Venom 2 with the help of its most important property. The No Way Home Twitter account hasn’t sent out any tweets in more than a month. This means the Venom teaser will keep a prominent position at the top of Sony’s official Spider-Man account for quite a while.
But this teaser implies that there’s a connection between No Way Home and Venom. Why else send out that tweet? Sony must be dying to tell everyone about it. The Venom 2 post-credits scene is one of the most talked-about Let There Be Carnage topics. It’s as if Sony went out of its way to ensure people knew about it before the film hit theaters. And all those early fan screenings certainly accomplished that goal.
