Venom: The Last Dance takes some wild swings and makes some pretty major decisions about the future of Eddie Brock and his gooey better half. But it also sets up some pretty interesting possibilities for the future of this weird perpetually Spider-Man adjacent timeline that Sony have built. Alasdair Stuart examines where things stand and where they could go next – obviously major spoilers for The Last Dance!

Eddie Brock

As the movie finishes, Eddie is alone and in New York. He’s profoundly, understandably, traumatised after the events of the trilogy but he also has the one thing that journalists crave: the inside scoop. He also has the one thing that makes him an asset: knowledge of the symbiotes. It seems very likely Eddie’s going back to journalism (has this universe’s Daily Planet pivoted to video perhaps?) and even if he doesn’t, there’s every chance he’s either going to be contacted by the military, the surviving symbiotes or his old buddy as the situation develops. And speaking of his old buddy…

Venom

Like so many superpowered characters, Venom is spending a couple of years dead for tax reasons. His actual death is one of the most touching elements of the movie, giving his life to protect Eddie one last time. But as anyone who sat through the end credits saw, a fragment of Venom is alive and riding a cockroach out of Area 55. Also, judging by the animals we glimpse in the opening credits, a lot of other four legged and now venomous friends. Whether this version of Venom remembers where Eddie was going is unclear. But it seems certain that we’re looking at a reunion at some point soon.

Area 55 and the US Government

The secret research facility is almost entirely wiped out by the end of the movie but there are hints that this isn’t the end for the US government’s interest in the symbiotes. If nothing else, the destruction of the facility could serve as this universe’s Chitauri Attack, waking the government if not the people up to the realities of extra-terrestrial threats. There are plenty of survivors too, including, it looked like, Jared Abrahamson’s character. was a major part of Travelers, a stunningly good Canadian time drama. Abrahamson would be a very good fit for variations on characters like Agent Venom or Anti-Venom. The former is originally veteran Flash Thompson from the Spider-Man comics while the latter is a new symbiote created by fragments of Venom interacting with experimental cells in Eddie’s body. Either could step across to the movies easily.

Symbiotes

The Symbiotes are in the most interesting place as the movie closes. We get an origin for them, brought over from the comics, that casts them as superpowered refugees, hiding from their impossibly powerful creator, Knull. More interesting is the fact this movie establishes the symbiotes as this Earth’s major superpowered singularity. By the end of the movie half a dozen have taken human hosts and there’s a loose implication that the military have used them as an enhancile program too. They’re not public, quite, even if there are multiple survivors of the Xenophage attack on Area 55, but Juno Temple’s Doctor Teddy Payne is definitely active and bonded with a symbiote with electricity based powers and super speed that seems to be based on Agony from the comics. Doctor Sadie Christmas played by Clark Backo has a major role and while she loses her symbiote she survives. So that’s two former symbiote hosts and one active symbiote host/pair with Payne, Christmas and Eddie. The symbiote are down but very far from out.

Xenophages

The seemingly unkillable symbiote hunters are the movie’s biggest threat and also one of its biggest unanswered questions. We see Knull open ‘sparkle circle’ portals which are similar to the ones we see MCU magic users deploy despite his being imprisoned. With Payne and Agony active, sooner or later another Codex will be created and even before then, it seems likely that the xenophages will continue hunting the remaining hosts and symbiotes on Earth.

Knull

The creator of the Symbiotes and Xenophages, Knill is an incredibly powerful being imprisoned by the symbiotes on the planet Kyntar. While he remains there as the movie ends, there’s an (confusing) implication) that he’s found a way out anyway. He’s clearly being set up as a Thanos level threat for this universe.  Which brings us to…

The Sinister Six

Sony’s Spider-verse movies have not had what you’d call an auspicious start. Morbius and Madam Web are memes that walk like movies and Kraven is either going to be a fun distraction or an ugly blood-drenched mess. Hell, maybe both. If, as rumoured, Sony are positioning the Sinister Six as the Avengers-level team who will fight Knull then it’s fair to say there is a lot of work to do. The likely line up would be Morbius, Madam Web, Kraven, Michael Keaton’s Vulture (who remember, for reasons no one has had explained yet, is in this universe now) and presumably Eddie and Agony. That’s a ragged team which, best guess, will involve at least one piece of re-casting but it’s an interesting idea. Also, if Thunderbolts* is a hit, one we should look to see happen sooner rather than later.

Spider-Man

The other rumour that keeps surfacing is that the eventual Sinister Six movie will feature a Peter Parker. It would make sense even if there’s no evidence Eddie’s world is either Tobey Maguire Peter or Andrew Garfield Peter’s. But it would be the logical time to bring one of them in, even if logic sometimes seems to be an occasional visitor to the Sony lot. Whether we get any of this is impossible to tell but, for now, somehow, this eccentric adjunct timeline is actually in quite an interesting place.

 

Venom: The Last Dance is in cinemas now and is much more fun than I was expecting.