WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home, now playing in theaters.
Spider-Man: No Way Home's first end-credits scene features a familiar face, who many speculated to appear in the film. Despite not playing a large role, the implications of the scene give big hints about the Spider-Man movies' future. Although it likely shows who will be the next villain to face off with Spider-Man, it also raises questions about whether characters from different movies will ever appear again.
Adding to the numerous villains featured in No Way Home, some speculated that Tom Hardy's Venom could be making an appearance. While he didn't appear during the movie, fans were treated with a Venom scene during the credits, hinting at his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's future.
In Venom: Let There be Carnage's end credits, Eddie lays on a hotel bed chatting to his symbiote. After a conversation about their pasts, Venom offers a taste of "80 billion light-years of hive knowledge across universes." The two are then transported into the MCU, with the TV displaying J. Jonah Jameson exposing Peter Parker as Spider-Man, as seen in the opening of No Way Home.
The scene suggests Venom knows of Spider-Man through his hive knowledge, as he looks at him menacingly on the TV. However, rather than seeking out Spider-Man during No Way Home, the credits scene shows that Eddie simply went to the hotel bar and got drunk. As Eddie drinks, he chats with the bartender, who fills him in on the recent events of the MCU, including the Thanos snap. He finds the stories hard to believe and ends the conversation by deciding to go find Spider-Man, which every other villain has already done.
Yet, just as Eddie leaves, he fades away and seemingly returns to his universe. This means Venom sat out the entirety of No Way Home's events, as Doctor Strange returns all the villains to their respective universes right at the end. While it may be disappointing for fans to see Tom Hardy disappear before interacting with any Spider-Man, he leaves behind something that has big implications for the character's future.
As Eddie fades away, a small glob of Venom's symbiote body stays behind, slowly moving as the scene cuts to black. This means that there's officially a Venom in the MCU, although what form it will take is still unknown. However, it is known that only a small amount of Venom's goop is needed to cause symbiosis with a human, so all that goop needs is a host.
While nothing has been confirmed, one theory is that the small Venom could be attracted to an MCU version of Tom Hardy, due to it keeping memories from the Venom movies. If this were the case, it would be a way of bringing Tom Hardy's Venom into the MCU, without removing him from his own universe. However it's just as possible that an entirely new host will appear for Venom, and the character will have yet another fresh interpretation.
Either way, it's been revealed that the Spider-Man films will continue, and this end-credits scene heavily implies that Spider-Man will face off against Venom once more -- something that hasn't been seen since 2007's Spider-Man 3.
To see Venom make an appearance in the end-credits scene, Spider-Man: No Way Home is now in theaters.