The MCU\u2019s Spider-Man has gone up against a colourful rogues gallery \u2013 from Michael Keaton\u2019s Vulture to Jake Gyllenhaal\u2019s Mysterio and, in new film Spider-Man: No Way Home<\/a>, a bevy of bad guys from Spidey movies past. But one face-off we\u2019ve been denied, thus far, is the web-slinger battling his dark mirror image Venom, with Sony (which still owns the film rights to Spider-Man) collaborating with Marvel Studios on Tom Holland\u2019s solo outings but also striking out on its own with projects featuring characters like Venom and Morbius<\/a> which take place in their own isolated universe.<\/p>\n Until now \u2013 because the multiverse madness being exploited to great effect in recent Marvel movies and TV shows has allowed for the lines between the MCU and the Sony-verse to get just a little fuzzy, even if we still may not be heading for the Tom (Holland) vs. Tom (Hardy) brawl of fans\u2019 dreams.<\/p>\n The first confirmation that the two foes might finally go toe-to-toe came with the post-credits scene of Venom sequel Let There Be Carnage (released in September this year), in which Hardy\u2019s Eddie Brock appeared to be transported from one universe to another and was confronted with news footage of Spider-Man\u2019s secret identity being exposed (as we\u2019d previously seen play out at the climax of 2019\u2019s Spider-Man: Far From Home<\/a>).<\/p>\n This sequence appeared to be setting up the crossover we\u2019d all been hoping for \u2013 but while Hardy does appear as Brock in Spider-Man: No Way Home, again via a post-credits scene, he\u2019s relegated to a brief cameo, sharing no screen-time with Holland\u2019s Peter Parker, and what\u2019s more is transported back to his own universe (courtesy of Dr. Strange reversing the spell he\u2019d botched earlier in the film) before the scene is over.<\/p>\n So was the whole thing just a big tease? Have our hopes of seeing MCU Spidey go up against Venom been quashed? Well, perhaps not\u2026<\/p>\n Though Hardy\u2019s version of Venom is transported back to his own world, he leaves behind part of the symbiote \u2013 which suggests we might be about to see a classic Spider-Man comic storyline play out on-screen, concerning an origin story for a whole new version of Venom.<\/p>\n In the original comic books, it was Peter Parker, not Eddie Brock, who was the first human to come into contact with the Venom symbiote, bringing it back to Earth from an alien world. Parker wore the living alien costume for an extended period, before discovering its true sinister nature and separating himself from it. When the symbiote found itself a new host in Brock, it had absorbed Spider-Man\u2019s powers, granting Brock similar abilities to ol\u2019 web-head.<\/p>\n Spidey\u2019s involvement in Venom\u2019s origin story was obviously excised in 2018\u2019s Venom \u2013 but now that the symbiote (or at least part of it) exists in the MCU, could we see a version of this plotline play out after all? Certainly, Holland\u2019s Peter coming into contact with the alien costume and it driving him to antisocial, increasingly violent behaviour would be an interesting path to take after No Way Home saw the character struggle with his hunger for vengeance and ended with him totally isolated from his support system \u2013 his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) dead, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon) and ally Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) having forgotten he ever existed.<\/p>\n But what of Venom? Presumably, there are no plans for Hardy\u2019s version of Eddie Brock to play a major role in the MCU or he too would have escaped Strange\u2019s spell and stayed put. But No Way Home\u2019s post-credits scene does open up the possibility that the MCU could introduce its own version of the villain to go up against Spider-Man after our hero sheds the black costume and unwittingly passes it on to a new host.<\/p>\n Again, referring back to the source material, there have been a number of different Venom hosts over the years besides Brock, a number of which have already featured in the MCU \u2013 the most notable being Peter\u2019s former high school classmate Flash Thompson and the villain (and one-time Scorpion) Mac Gargan, and while it\u2019s difficult to imagine Tony Revolori\u2019s screen version of Flash (mostly utilised for comic relief and a far cry from the jock bully he\u2019s portrayed as in the comics) turning bad, Michael Mando\u2019s take on criminal Gargan (as last seen in 2017\u2019s Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/a>) could be a contender to step up as the MCU\u2019s Venom.<\/p>\n The other option, what with this being a multiverse and all, is that we could meet a different version of disgruntled journalist Eddie Brock, played by an actor other than Tom Hardy. That might seem like a stretch, but given that Spider-Man: No Way Home featured no less than three different versions of Peter Parker\/Spider-Man, perhaps it\u2019s not as wild a concept as it might have once seemed.<\/p>\n If 13 years of MCU movies has taught us anything, it\u2019s that Marvel always has a plan, so it\u2019s safe to assume that the symbiote remaining in the Tom Holland Spidey-verse was no mere afterthought. Something<\/em> is definitely afoot here, even if it\u2019s not quite the Spider-Man\/Venom confrontation we were expecting.<\/p> Spider-Man: No Way Home is out now in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> to see what\u2019s on tonight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n![\""Tom\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/12\/tom_holland_spider_man_no_Way_home-b087de1-87d68fd.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Tom\\"\/")
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