Why Tom Hardy's Venom & Tom Holland's Spider-Man Haven't Crossed Over Yet

With the release of last year's "Venom: The Last Dance," Tom Hardy's time as Eddie Brock/Venom appears to be in the rearview mirror. In no small part thanks to the failures of "Madame Web" and "Kraven the Hunter," Sony is hitting the pause button on these "Spider-Man" spin-offs. After all, these were largely failed experiments, save for the "Venom" movies. Perhaps having a version of Spidey in these movies would have helped? For what it's worth, Hardy desperately wanted to do a crossover with Tom Holland's Peter Parker. It just never came to pass.

During a recent conversation with The Playlist to promote his new crime series "Mobland," Hardy spoke about a theoretical "Venom" and "Spider-Man" crossover that was never brought to fruition. When asked if studio politics had anything to do with it, Hardy had this to say about it:

"We got close. We got as close as I could possibly imagine getting, apart from doing a film together, which I would have loved to have done because that just means so much fun. And for all the reasons that you explained ultimately in there."

Venom is one of Spider-Man's most notorious foes, and a popular one at that. To Hardy's point, they did get close, with Venom showing up in the credits scene attached to "Spider-Man: No Way Home." The credits scene attached to 2021's "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" also featured Holland's Spidey on TV, but not in the flesh. Again, close, but no cigar. In the end, there is a sort of obvious, if frustrating, reason for the lack of a crossover.

Sony controls the rights to the "Spider-Man" franchise. They produced the "Venom" movies, which were not officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Holland's "Spider-Man" movies are part of the MCU though, which means Disney and Marvel Studios would have to sign off. That's where things get tricky.

Even though the "Venom" movies were huge hits, with the trilogy generating more than $1.8 billion at the box office, they weren't exactly critical darlings, to put it kindly. The MCU has a brand to protect and hitching that wagon to a series of critical misfires was probably a tough sell. Would Sony want it? Absolutely, but it wasn't fully up to Sony. Now, with "Venom 3" in the rearview mirror, they've got to figure out what to do with the franchise.

"Fundamentally, for me, it would be for the kids," Hardy said of the Spider-Man crossover he wanted but never got. "As much as adults love superhero films, as you can tell by the box office when they're successful, I think I'm constantly reminded by children how important these characters are. And they don't know why their favorite characters aren't in films together."

For now, Sony is focused on Holland's "Spider-Man 4," which still doesn't have a confirmed villain. Maybe we'll be getting a different take on Venom? Hardy, speaking further, explained that during his tenure with the character, they were given a surprising amount of creative freedom, relative to the realm of big franchise filmmaking, particularly within the larger Marvel universe.

"We just did what we did. We were given a set of boundaries, and we were just really privileged to be able to play with a much-beloved IP like Venom in a way that we were allowed to play. And in that [regard], we did what we could and what we loved doing. We poured all of ourselves into it within the limits of what we were allowed to do with him. And so the enjoyment of the work outweighed the limits of our possibilities with him because we just focused on what we were allowed to do. And we loved doing it."

You can grab "Venom: The Last Dance" on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.