The upcoming Venom: The Last Dance promises to be a chaotic, campy, and potentially cataclysmic conclusion to Sony’s unlikely Venom trilogy, starring Tom Hardy as the goo-covered anti-hero.
The trailer opens in a familiar setting – the Mexican bar from the Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits scene where Eddie Brock/Venom appeared to cross over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, any hopes of a full-blown multiverse mashup are quickly dashed as the duo devour some baddies before going on the run from soldiers led by Chiwetel Ejiofor’s mysterious character.
Yes, despite the brief No Way Home tease, Venom: The Last Dance is firmly set in Sony’s separate Spider-Verse, free from any Avengers entanglements. The trailer even shows Ejiofor’s forces capturing the little Venom slime left behind at the bar, neatly re-containing the symbiote within its original cinematic universe.
So, what insane intergalactic threat could justify dubbing this “The Last Dance?” According to the ominous trailer narration by Venom, it seems his entire murderous race of alien symbiotes has tracked the rogue parasite to Earth, promising an onslaught of black goo villains.
This pulls directly from Marvel Comics’ relatively recent revelation that Venom originated from a race of symbiotes created as living weapons by the evil proto-celestial Knull on the planet Klyntar. Venom barely survived Knull’s attempted conquest of all reality during the King in Black crossover event just a couple years ago.
If writer/director Kelly Marcel truly adapts Knull and the symbiote invasion premise, it could make for an appropriately epic and bombastic curtain call for Hardy’s deliciously unhinged performance(s) as the twin personalities of Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. The trailers for Venom: The Last Dance already showcase the usual demented banter and body horror as the mismatched pair careen towards their seemingly inevitable “devastating decision.”
Hardy has clearly reveled in this weird, darkly comedic Marvel universe, far removed from the conventionally bright and glossy Avengers films. And despite some previous underperformers, Sony seems interested in continuing Venom’s box office success as one of their few reliable franchises spinning out of the Spider-Man IP.
Ultimately, whether this is a true permanent goodbye or merely the closing chapter of one deranged symbiotic saga remains to be seen. After all, we’ve seen more than one story that had been previously declared concluded, resuscitated into another prolonged series of films.
Venom: The Last Dance is slated to debut in theaters on October 25, 2024.
