'Venom' Director Hints Venom Could Crossover With Spider-Man In Future Movies

Don't expect to see your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man popping up in Venom when the film hits theaters this October. The film will very much be a Venom-only story. But director Ruben Fleischer doesn't count-out future Spidey crossovers in Venom sequels to come.

We're 99.9% sure Tom Holland's Spider-Man isn't going to have a last-minute cameo appearance in Venom, but that won't stop people from wildly speculating anyway. Marvel Studios struck a deal with Sony to bring Spidey into the MCU, but the MCU Spider-Man and Sony's Spider-Man-inspired universe, or the Sony Marvel Universe, if you will, are two very different things.

For now, Sony is forging ahead with Venom, a film featuring Spider-Man antagonist Venom/Eddie Brock (played by Tom Hardy) striking out on his own. Director Ruben Fleischer recently spoke with Empire about Venom, and made it pretty darn clear that the movie is free of any sort of Spider-Men. But he also seemingly hinted that future Venom films might feature a certain wall-crawler. Maybe.

"This feels very much like Venom's movie," Fleischer said. "It's the introduction of the character. As to where it will go in future movies, and who he'll run across, I can't say."

This is all very vague, and Fleischer's comment about not knowing who Venom will "run across" in future films could mean anything. But it's also easy to see Spider-Man implications there as well. After all, Venom is a Spider-Man character, and when Venom was first announced, many fans wondered if Venom could even work as a character without Spider-Man.

In the past, producer Amy Pascal has made it pretty clear that the MCU Spider-Man and Sony's Marvel films are two very different things, telling ComicBook.com:

"Here's what we're doing: all these characters are a part of the Marvel comic book universe. In that universe, they are all related to each other. Kevin [Feige] makes characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These characters are separate, except for Spidey, who belongs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is why he's there."

Sony has been planning their own Spider-Man-inspired universe for a few years now. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was filled with easter eggs meant to tease all sorts of spin-offs, like a Sinister Six movie. But then The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed at the box office, and Sony entered into talks with Marvel Studios. Another possible Sony Spider-Man spin-off is Silver and Black, which was originally due out February 8, 2019. However, Sony recently took the film off their release date calendar completely, indicating we won't see it anytime soon.

Venom opens on October 5, 2018.