The main event at Sony’s panel in Hall H at Comic-Con Friday night was undoubtedly the lengthy new “Venom” trailer that was shown, but star Tom Hardy and director Ruben Fleisher had something bigger they wanted to bring up: the possibility of this version of Venom coming up against the current iteration of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Right now, this “Venom” movie stands by itself, and is in no way part of the MCU — the Marvel logo shown in the trailer even reads “In Association With Marvel Studios,” a pretty clear indicator of how it’s just its own thing over there.
It’s a weird thing, because with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man over in the MCU, the two can’t meet on screen. Which is unfortunate, because Venom is a Spider-Man villain and Eddie Brock, Venom’s human alter ego, knows Peter Parker really well. For them to meet, it would require either Sony agreeing to allow Venom into the MCU the same way they allowed Spider-Man into the greater Marvel fold — or for Sony to pull Spider-Man out of the MCU.
However it would happen is immaterial, though, to the comments Fleischer and Hardy made at Comic-Con. It was, to be fair, all speculative. Anyway, here’s what they said:
“I think we can all agree it would be pretty amazing to see Spider-Man and Venom face off in a film. I can speak for myself when I say that I’d be very excited to go see that film. I have to think that the studio’s thinking the same way and that at some point down the road they’re going to run across each other’s paths,” Fleischer said.
“What, me? Go toe-to-toe with Tom Holland? I’ll have a go, yeah,” Hardy added. “He’s an awesome actor and I’d love to work with him, and I love Spider-Man. Who knows?”
This is, of course, in no way a conclusive statement that this iteration of villain and the current iteration of Spider-Man actually will run into each other in a movie. But it certainly does indicate that Fleischer thinks it could be possible.
Meanwhile, the Sony Pictures Twitter really liked those quotes.
Tom Holland recently revealed that #Venom is the Marvel character he would most like to face off with says @JessicaChobot. Ruben notes, “At some point down the road they will hopefully cross paths.” #SDCC2018 #SonyAtSDCC
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) July 21, 2018
Tom Hardy adds, “Go toe to toe with Tom Holland? I’ll have a go! He’s an awesome actor. I’d love to work with him.” #Venom #SDCC2018 #SonyAtSDCC
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) July 21, 2018
Well see.