Eddie Brock spent Venom: The Last Dance trying to get to New York City. Considering he was a famous fugitive who needed to avoid both people and security cameras, the Big Apple made no sense as a destination. He’s a smart guy who knows no amount of blackmail material over a single judge would have saved him from the U.S. military. Like most things people did in the film, it was a totally illogical course of action for him. That’s why his quest to reach New York felt like it had nothing to do with Eddie or even Venom: The Last Dance: Instead of Lady Liberty, site of a very famous, very recent cinematic team-up, felt like it was entirely about an iconic New Yorker. The movie very clearly teased a meet-up with the person who will be the most important part of Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse franchise, Spider-Man.
Why make your audience think its getting a Spider-Man cameo if you aren’t going to actually show him? Why raise hopes for a highly-anticipated moment only to deliver disappointment? And why let your only successful standalone series potentially end without letting Eddie meet his famous counterpart? It doesn’t make sense. It’s both bad storytelling and bad business. All of which raises another question: did Sony pull the plug on its original plans to end Venom: The Last Dance with Spider-Man’s debut?
Venom: The Last Dance did not worry itself about plot holes or characters acting logically. (That’s a big reason we liked it!) But Eddie’s mission to reach New York City felt different from all of the other inexplicable things people did for a very important reason. You can’t even mention New York City in a Spider-Man-adjacent movie without making people think of Spider-Man. And you certainly can’t have your main character focus on getting there when it doesn’t make sense for him to go there.
New York City is where Spider-People live! It’s also where this franchise very clearly needs to go very soon. Every major character, villain, and anti-hero from Sony’s standalone films will all need to eventually reach New York City. Morbius, Venom, Adrian Toomes, and (soon) Kraven the Hunter are all destined to end up in the Big Apple. It is a beacon for every Sony live-action Spider-Verse character because of Spider-Man. We just haven’t met this universe’s Spider-Person yet.
The Last Dance set his introduction up and then didn’t deliver. The only beacon Eddie saw was the one held by the Statue of Liberty. No disrespect to that iconic symbol, but Lady Liberty’s appearance didn’t make for a fulfilling end to Venom: The Last Dance. Not when the movie heavily foreshadowed the only moment fans actually care about. And especially not when Sony itself is preparing us to meet an all-new kind of live-action Spider-Man. The studio has said they plan to make a live-action Miles Morales movie. He felt like the most likely Spider-Man to swing into Eddie’s post-credits scene.
Instead all we got something worse than nothing. We got the unshakable feeling something important was supposed to happened and it didn’t. Fans of cinematic universes are already trained to expect a big end-credits moments, so it wasn’t like Sony needed a Spider-Man misdirect to make us care about the end of the movie. The fact they did without that epic payoff makes it impossible not to wonder if the studio changed it’s mind at the very, very last second. As in, it was too late to cut Eddie’s quest to reach not just New York City. Not just New York City, either. Specifically he wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, the place all the live-action Spider-Mans just teamed up!
It’s possible Sony didn’t ever plan to introduce Miles or any other Spider-Man. Maybe Sony just wanted an excuse to get Eddie Brock in New York City for a future event movie and (somehow?) overlooked the implications of spending an entire film doing that and how it would come across to people watching. That seems unlikely, but even if that’s what happened it doesn’t explain how they still ended up doing that. Spider-Man fans at test screenings would have mentioned what they thought was going to happen at the end. There’s just no way a tease of this magnitude was overlooked by thousands of people who worked on the film or saw early cuts. It’s impossible.
But even if that is what happened, it doesn’t explain why Sony seems so reluctant to introduce Spider-Man to its own live-action Spider-Verse. Especially when Venom: The Last Dance‘s own end-credits scene teased a massive live-action Spider-Verse event movie is coming. (One that will likely feature the return of Venom.) What better way to build anticipation for an Avengers-level movie, either a Sinister Six film or Knull-centered team-up, than by finally introducing your most important character in the only standalone Spider-Man movie series that matters?
At some point anticipation gives way to exhaustion. You can only wait for something for so long before you start to not care if it ever happens. And that’s the dangerous spot Sony is getting closer to with its live-action Spider-Verse. Outside of its three Venom films, Sony hasn’t exactly made a compelling case for its cinematic universe. Jokes about “Morbin’ time” and researching spiders in the Amazon don’t build franchises.
The best, easiest way to reinvigorate this sagging superhero universe is to finally bring Spider-Man into the fold. Venom: The Last Dance certainly set up the debut of Miles Morales or a new Peter Parker. If it had, that’s what we’d be talking about instead of being confused by Eddie Brock’s travel plans. Unfortunately it seems like Sony decided it wasn’t enough for Eddie to lose his best friend. He also had to lose a chance to finally meet Spider-Man.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He would‘ve lost money mid Venom: The Last Dance betting Miles Morales would show up at the end. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
