With Venom out in cinemas and a sequel reportedly already confirmed, everyone’s talking about the Venom post-credits scenes and what they could mean for the future of Sony’s plans for a shared cinematic universe. If you’ve seen the Venom ending, then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, but if you haven’t, beware, because spoilers abound in this Venom post-credits scenes explainer. Whether you’ve seen the Venom post-credits scenes or not and you want to know more about the characters that appeared, what happened, and what it all means, you’re in the right place because that exactly what we’re going to be discussing. Final warning for spoilers… Everyone ready? Ok, here’s what happened in those Venom post-credits scenes and what it could mean.
The first Venom post-credits scene is clearly the most important when it comes to the future of the Sony shared cinematic universe. After defeating Riot/Drake, Eddie (and Venom, although we don’t know it at first) is sat on the steps outside Anne’s flat telling her about an important interview he has that day. In the first Venom post-credits scene we see him go to that interview and it has wider implications for future movies. Arriving at San Quentin State Prison, it becomes clear that Eddie is interviewing an infamous serial killer and that the meeting has been set up by the FBI at the request of the inmate. Walking into a heavily secured room he finds said inmate sat in a barred cell, writing “Welcome Eddie” on the wall in his own blood. As he turns around, it’s revealed that it’s Woody Harrelson wearing a red wig and looking particularly menacing as he asks Eddie to come closer, before saying: “When I get out of here, there’s going to be carnage.”
It’s not much to go on, but if you know your comic books you probably already know who Harrelson is playing in the Venom post-credits scene. His character’s name is Cletus Kasady who eventually becomes the villain Carnage (get it now?) after meeting Venom in the comics. In the comics, Cletus is a bloody and disturbing serial killer who just so happens to become Eddie’s cellmate… that is, until Eddie’s Symbiote turns up and breaks him out (in the comics Symbiotes don’t need a host to survive on Earth). Cletus is mega impressed with Venom and lucky for him, part of the Symbiote gets left behind in his cell, which bonds with him to create Venom’s offspring Carnage. But Cletus is an unstable host - being an unstable human being to begin with - so Carnage basically becomes a bigger, badder (and red) version of Venom, which actually leads to Venom becoming more of an anti-hero rather than an out and out villain and teaming up with Spider-Man to stop him.
While we never see Carnage and it’s unclear how part of Eddie’s Symbiote would ever come into contact with Cletus in the current movie storyline, the Venom post-credits scene is obviously teasing him as potential villain for Venom 2. One which might see everyone’s favourite web-slinger enter Sony’s shared cinematic universe and team-up with our favourite anti-hero. It’s something which director Ruben Fleischer and star Tom Hardy certainly teased for future films when they turned up to San Diego Comic Con 2018 with some exclusive Hall H footage for fans. “I think we can all agree it would be pretty amazing to see Spider-Man and Venom face off in a film,” said Fleischer. “I have to think the studio’s thinking the same way and, at some point down the road, they’re going to run across each other’s paths.” And when Hardy was asked if he’d like to fight Spider-Man, he answered amusingly literally: “What, go toe-to-toe with Tom Holland? I’ll have a go, yeah. You’ve got to have a go, ain’t yah?” While it certainly would be an exciting to see Venom 2 feature a Venom vs Spider-Man fight and then a Venom and Spider-man team-up against Cranage, it all depends on a lot of different factors, not least of which Marvel Studios. Then again, you don’t cast an Oscar-nominated actor in a bit part role in a post-credits scene if you don’t have plans...
The second Venom post-credits scene has nothing to do with the Symbiote, but does still tie into Sony’s shared cinematic universe. A clip from the studio’s other major movie of the year Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it shows an extended look at the animated Spider-Man movie which features the Miles Morales incarnation of the superhero (plus a whole load of others). If you’re not already excited for this movie from its recent trailer, then the second Venom post-credits scene will definitely get you hyped. It starts out with Miles standing in front of Peter Parker’s grave (yes, really) and telling him that he’s not sure he can be the Spider-Man he asked him to be, when a different Peter Parker/Spider-Man from an alternate dimension turns up. Startled, Miles knocks him out with his webbing and gets attached to this other Spidey. Then the cops show up and to get away Miles has to take the other Peter Parker/Spider-Man with him as he desperately tries to swing him way out of the situation. What follows is an action-packed and hilariously weird chase through the city of New York as the police pursue what they describe as “a child dressed like Spider-Man dragging a homeless corpse behind a train”.
While this Venom post-credits scene is more of an extended preview for a completely different movie - and one which is tonally very different from Venom - it indicates that Sony is already thinking about it’s future and how all its movies connect to one another. Plus, it gave Venom the chance to include a Spider-Man element without actually having to work the web-slinger in the main plot. When explaining how this Venom post-credits scene came about, Fleischer told io9: “It was an idea that [the studio proposed] that I loved because I’m friends with Phil Lord [who wrote Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse] and Chris Miller. It just seemed like a really cool way to conceptually have Spider-Man in our movie without actually having him in our movie.” Could we see this version of Spider-Man crossover into another Venom movie? It’s pretty unlikely at this stage, but it does prove, that just like Marvel, Sony is thinking about the potential for a big blockbuster shared cinematic universe.
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