It doesn't take an expert to point out the plentiful and catastrophic flaws in Sony's Spider-Man universe. The SSU has been profitable to date, but every entry has suffered diminishing returns. Its critical reception has been much more consistent, unseating the Transformers franchise as this decade's go-to worst blockbuster brand. Venom is the standout, but its sequel raised questions of longevity. Venom: The Last Dance will cap off the trilogy, but will it lead to anything further, or is Sony selling another project on false promises?
The SSU experiment seeks to turn minor Spider-Man antagonists and allies into central characters in solo projects, eventually leading to some sort of team-up vehicle. It doesn't work for several reasons, most notably because most of the comic book icons they've selected are C and D-listers. Upcoming titles like Kraven the Hunter and El Muerto will have to wholly reinvent their subjects to pull a feature-length story out of their lives. Venom is the headliner, and fans aren't sick of him yet.
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Venom: The Last Dance's first trailer has a confusing moment
Director | Kelly Marcel |
|---|---|
Screenwriter | Kelly Marcel |
Story By | Tom Hardy and Kelly Marcel |
Stars | Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu |
Release Date | October 25, 2024 |
Venom: The Last Dance dropped its first trailer on June 3rd. It's a compelling slice of the film that leaves a lot of the narrative's mysteries unspoken. It's a bit tough to determine much about the plot, but that's clearly a creative choice. One of its most cryptic scenes comes just a minute and a half into the trailer. Chiwetel Ejiofor portrays an unnamed soldier driven to capture symbiotes like Venom. The trailer depicts him bursting into a bar and slamming a glass vial on top of a writhing mass of black goo. Fans may recall the scenery from the post-credits sequence from Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The post-credits scene from Venom: Let There Be Carnage established the idea of a shared symbiote hive mind across the multiverse. That detail complimented the Doctor Strange spell that transported Venom to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No Way Home abruptly reversed that decision, sending Eddie home while leaving a drop of symbiotic goo behind. If the trailer is to be believed, the next thing that happens in that scene is Chiwetel Ejiofor popping into the bar and snagging the symbiote. This could have interesting implications for both universes, if it's in the movie.
Morbius had a misleading trailer
Morbius needed a lot of extra work in the marketing phase. The movie is awful, so it would take tremendous effort to bring in audiences. Those who've observed the trailers may have noticed some scenes that didn't make the movie. Most notably, several elements that tied Morbius and the SSU to central Spider-Man plot details. The trailer depicts Michael Morbius walking past a massive Spider-Man mural defaced by graffiti. Though the crudely spray-painted message seems to reference the MCU's post-Mysterio PR disaster, the image looks like Tobey Maguire's Spider-Suit. Michael Keaton's Vulture also appeared in the trailers, and while he's still in the movie, each trailer tried out a different line for the character. Little details like the Oscorp building in New York City's skyline and a discarded Daily Bugle with shifting headlines also appear in the trailers. Morbius used these teaser elements to hint at unanswered questions. It seemed to pitch Morbius as a new entry in every existing Spider-Man film franchise. The film ignored those potential reveals, leaving the film in Venom's standalone universe without answering everyone's biggest question. The tease in Venom: The Last Dance could result in a similar anti-climax.
What could that Venom: The Last Dance scene mean?
The most straightforward reading of that scene in the Venom: The Last Dance trailer is that Chiwetel Ejiofor's character somehow tracked the symbiote to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The explanation of Eddie Brock's transportation to Earth-19999 felt a bit slapdash in Let There Be Carnage, but it seems to be reaching its purpose. It seemed reasonable to assume Marvel and Sony initially planned to leave that symbiote goo behind as a way to get Tom Holland into the black Spidey suit. With Brock back home after Strange's second spell, the goo remains in that bar with no clear path out. This may hint at Ejiofor's character as something other than a regular human soldier. It may also lead to a scene in which he happens to capture a piece of Venom at an unrelated matching bar, resulting in a weak fakeout. Both options remain possible, but there are a ton of interesting ways to see this pay off.
Venom: The Last Dance might fall into the same trap as every other SSU project. Fans struggle to care about the content when they're worried about the multiverse continuity implications. Sony should let the movie stand on its own, but pulling trailer trickery doesn't help. They're telling fans to focus on the elements that don't matter. Venom: The Last Dance could set up tons of future film projects, but that won't be its primary purpose as a film. Let Eddie and Venom enjoy their last hoorah.
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