Venom 2 Director Reveals Tom Holland’s Original Role In The Sequel
Venom 2 was originally going to include a cameo from Tom Holland as Spider-Man
Venom 2 was originally supposed to include Tom Holland in a very different way. In retrospect, one of the crazier things about Sony’s Venom movies is that the studio managed to create a hit franchise around one of Spider-Man’s most iconic bad guys without actually including Spider-Man. But to this day, Sony and Marvel maintain a sometimes uneasy relationship that carefully defines how (or if) Tom Holland’s Spider-Man from the MCU can interact with any properties outside of that universe.
However, in a recent interview with British GQ, Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis implied there were earlier drafts of that film’s script which would have involved Tom Holland’s Spider-Man making a cameo appearance because “there were drafts which had more” of the MCU in them.
Serkis didn’t really say much about how Venom 2 would have included Tom Holland, and he likely kept mum so as not to annoy executives at both Sony and Disney. But the post-credits scene for that movie saw Venom transported into the MCU and watching news reports about Spider-Man from the ending of Far From Home. So it stands to reason that other drafts of the script would have had this antihero actually meeting everyone’s favorite webhead instead of just watching him on the television.
Still, fans were excited with the final post-credits scene because it seemed to be setting up some kind of inevitable confrontation between these characters in some future film.
Unfortunately, fans hoping to see Tom Hardy’s Venom interact with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man had those hopes dashed in the post-credits scene for Spider-Man: No Way Home. That scene involved Venom learning about the heroes and villains of the MCU and deciding that he needs to meet Spider-Man…right before Doctor Strange’s spell whipped Venom back into his own multiverse. It looked like the door was closed forever on Venom and Spider-Man meeting up, but future Marvel shows and movies may open that door yet again.
For example, Marvel has gone all-in on the multiverse, which is evident in movies such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and, most recently, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. These movies all involve familiar characters from different universes, so Venom may be just one multiversal misadventure away from meeting Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. And if that misadventure has a name, it is most likely Secret Wars.
Secret Wars is going to be the 2025 follow-up to the earlier movie from that year, Avengers: Kang Dynasty. While details about Secret Wars remain limited, the original comic of the same name involved various heroes and villains transported to an alien Battleworld to fight each other.
The rumor mill has strongly suggested that the movie will bring in Marvel characters from outside the MCU, and this will most likely include having Venom finally meet Tom Holland’s Spider-Man (which is only fitting, as the original Secret Wars comics were the origin of the symbiotic suit that eventually became Venom).
We may find out whether Tom Hardy’s Venom and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man are destined to beat the heck out of each other before Secret Wars comes out, though. While that movie is slated for a 2025 release, Sony is working on a third Venom film that will likely come out before then and may help to set up this multiversal match-up. Let’s just hope that Sony doesn’t take too many cues from Marvel and make a movie that does nothing but set up future movies instead of telling an interesting story (looking at you, Quantumania).
