Marvel Studios reportedly nixed plans for Tom Holland's Spider-Man to appear in Sony Pictures' Venom films.
According to a report from YouTube channel Heavy Spoilers (via The Direct), Holland was initially set to make a cameo as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Peter Parker/Spider-Man in 2018's Venom. However, "Marvel Studios pulled the plug on it and said, 'No way.'" The YouTube channel also noted that although "one of the stipulations" in Marvel's 2019 deal with Sony was "that the [Sony Marvel] franchises connect to the MCU," there has been little crossover between the MCU and Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU).
While Marvel Studios restricted Holland from appearing in Venom, the studio had no issue with Tom Hardy making a cameo as Eddie Brock/Venom in the post-credits scene of 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. This served as a follow-up to Let There Be Carnage's mid-credits scene that saw the duo transported to the MCU, where they learned that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Despite the characters' only making a cameo in No Way Home before being transported back to their universe, their appearances allowed Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to "basically [yank] the Venom symbiote and put it in the MCU."
Will Spider-Man 4 Include Venom?
With a fourth MCU Spider-Man film in early development at Marvel Studios, fans are curious to see if the upcoming sequel will give Holland's Peter Parker the black symbiote suit after it was teased in No Way Home's post-credits scene. Unfortunately for fans, rumored plot details for Spider-Man have suggested that the upcoming sequel will be a street-level story set in "the aftermath of Daredevil: Born Again." Insiders have also stated that Peter will not receive the symbiote suit until 2026's Avengers: Secret Wars, mirroring when the character first chronologically donned the suit in the comics (in 1984's Secret Wars #8).
With Venom's inclusion in Spider-Man 4 up in the air, the symbiote's next confirmed Marvel movie appearance will be in Sony's Venom 3, which was announced during Sony's CinemaCon 2022 presentation. The upcoming threequel will be the seventh film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe and is currently expected to come out after the Aaron Taylor-Johnson-led Kraven the Hunter (2023) and potential franchise starters El Muerto and Madame Web (both 2024). The SSU franchise has become a successful box office player for Sony, with both Venom films and Morbius (2022) grossing a combined $1.53 billion at the worldwide box office.
Spider-Man 4 and Venom 3 do not yet have release dates.
Source: Heavy Spoilers via The Direct