The first sting is a follow-up to the shock Venom: Let There Be Carnage end credits scene, which saw Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock transported to the Marvel Cinematic Universe under mysterious circumstances.

The unexplained incident occurs while Brock and his symbiote partner are enjoying some downtime in their hotel room at a South American beach resort, switching on the TV to see Tom Holland’s disgraced Spider-Man on the news.

No Way Home reveals that it was Doctor Strange’s spell that briefly brought Venom into the MCU, summoning everyone who knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

It’s unclear how Eddie Brock is included in that since he’s yet to encounter any version of the web-slinger in his own universe, but prior to their teleportation Venom does brag about how the symbiote hive-mind knows many secrets of the universe.

In a funny twist, Hardy’s Venom never actually shows up in the main plot of No Way Home, with this first end credits scene revealing he never leaves the tropical resort he turns up at.

Instead, he gets leathered at the hotel lounge as he attempts to wrap his head around all the events that have happened in the MCU so far, as explained to him by the bartender (played by Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernández).

Among the references, Brock is mind-blown to learn that this universe has “tons of super people” including a billionaire with a “tin suit” and a green monster simply known as Hulk.

“And you thought Lethal Protector was a s**t name,” says Venom, throwing shade at Bruce Banner’s rage monster.

He later hears about the traumatic events of Infinity War and the blip, with Venom being outraged by the idea that in this universe, aliens like “stones” rather than “eating brains”.

A drunken Brock stumbles up from the bar and says: “Maybe I should go to New York and speak to this Spider-Man,” but moments later is sent back to his own separate universe, as were the other inter-dimensional guests at the climax of the film.

Fernández’s bartender is just annoyed that he didn’t pay his bar tab before disappearing.

Just as it seems this scene might be fun, but largely inconsequential, the camera zooms in on the bar, where it is revealed that a tiny bit of the Venom symbiote separated from Brock and has been left to roam the MCU.

It starts moving across the bar, implying that it could cross paths with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in the as-yet-untitled Spider-Man 4, opening the door for the famous black suit storyline as well as the MCU’s own distinct version of Venom.

No Way Home end credits scene 2