Venom 2 Is Better Off Without A Tom Holland Spider-Man Cameo

As rumors about a Spider-Man cameo appearance in Venom: Let There Be Carnage continue, the truth is that Venom’s latest adventure is better off without the presence of the web-slinger. Venom is one of the most popular characters in Marvel Comics, and as such, fans patiently waited for the symbiote to make the jump to the big screen, and it finally happened in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, but it wasn’t what they expected. Venom got a second chance in 2018 with a solo movie, simply titled Venom and directed by Ruben Fleischer, with Tom Hardy taking over the role of Eddie Brock and providing the voice for Venom as well.

Venom told the origin story of journalist Eddie Brock, who during an investigation of the experiments at Life Foundation, ended up bonding with an alien symbiote as the lab was experimenting on humans and symbiotic life forms. The symbiote, whose name is Venom, manifests around Eddie’s body as a monstrous creature and grants him special abilities, and together, they went after Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), leader of Life Foundation, and Riot, the symbiote he bonded with. Although Venom didn’t do well with critics, it was a hit with the audience, granting it a sequel titled Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which will properly introduce Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) and the symbiote Carnage, and fans also hope this will be the movie that sees Tom Holland’s Spider-Man meet Venom.

Venom’s first full appearance in the comics was in The Amazing Spider-Man #300 in 1988, and it has since been associated with the web-slinger, who was actually its very first host. It’s not surprising, then, that Venom has been that one character from Marvel Comics that fans have wanted to see next to Spider-Man in each big-screen adaptation of the superhero, and the interest only grew when Sony started working on Venom’s solo movie. Now, as the Sony/Marvel deal allows Spider-Man to exist in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, fans hoped to see Holland’s Spidey in Venom and now in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but as exciting as that would be, a Spider-Man cameo would actually hurt Venom’s sequel, which is just starting to embrace its weirdness.

One of the mistakes of the first movie was that it was marketed as a dark, almost horror movie when it was actually charged with comedy moments. The studio learned from those mistakes and is now embracing the weirdness and sense of humor of Venom 2, but as it just started doing so, adding Spider-Man to the mix would hurt this small but significant development. Spider-Man would overshadow Venom and Eddie and would ultimately mess with this process of embracing itself. In addition to that, Venom 2 already seems to have enough going on with the continuation of the exploration of the dynamic between Eddie and Venom, Eddie’s relationship with his ex-wife Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), the introduction of Frances Barrison/Shriek (Naomie Harris), and of course, that of Cletus and Carnage, so the appearance of Holland’s Spider-Man would be a bit too much and a distraction from everything else that is, ultimately, more important to Sony and Venom’s universe.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that Spider-Man shouldn’t show up in Sony’s universe – after all, it has been renamed “Sony’s Spider-Man Universe” for a reason – but Venom: Let There Be Carnage isn’t the right time for that, more so when taking into account that Peter Parker has a lot of to deal with over at the MCU, with his identity now exposed thanks to Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his upcoming problems in the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Meanwhile, Venom can continue building its own path and embracing its weirdness before it can add another major character into the mix.