Venom: Let There Be Carnage's Post-Credits Scene Explained
"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" may technically exist outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but its post-credits scene tells a different story.
The film, released October 1, has moviegoers raving over its shocking final moments which appear to have flipped the Sony Pictures franchise on its head. Anyone who has seen a comic book flick over the past 20 years knows how influential these post-credits scenes can be, and also how many are used as throwaways. So it's important to keep this in mind, but boy does the "Venom" sequel set up some major possibilities.
"Let There Be Carnage" not only latches onto Marvel's post-credits scene framework of teeing up future films, but it also infects this technique with a sense of anticipation rarely seen in the MCU. Multiple films could be affected by the events seen at the end of the "Venom" sequel, and fans are already speculating on what could play out.
Venom comes face-to-face with Spider-Man
It's a monumental moment that could change the MCU forever. After the events of "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his symbiote BFF are on the run and holed up in a dingy hotel somewhere, watching television, when they begin discussing whether Venom keeps certain things secret from Eddie. Venom explains that he has gained access to eons of cosmic knowledge, which is too much for Eddie's feeble mind to bear. But Eddie dares Venom to try him.
As the big guy is getting ready to give Eddie a taste of his knowledge, a bright blinding light comes into the room and everything begins to shake and change violently. Eddie's entire reality is different, with him and Venom now in a completely different, much ritzier hotel. "What did you do?" Eddie asks. To which Venom replies, "It wasn't me." The television show they've been watching has also changed. It's now a news broadcast, one that should look very familiar to MCU fans.
The broadcast features Peter Parker (Tom Holland) being outed on live television as Spider-Man by The Daily Bugle's J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons, reprising his role from the Tobey Maguire-led "Spider-Man" trilogy, though in a different interpretation). It's ultimately the same exact after-credits scene from "Spider-Man: Far From Home." But what does the cameo mean?
Is Venom in the MCU now?
Whether Venom is officially in the MCU now is the question on everyone's minds after seeing the "Let There Be Carnage" post-credits scene, and the answer may be more complicated than people think.
Venom definitely appears to have some sort of connection to Peter Parker, judging by the drooling affinity he has for him when Holland's face comes across the screen. "That guy," Venom can be heard saying before licking the TV. But could Sony just be having fun with fans? Several theories have popped up online, including the idea that Dr. Strange was possibly casting the spell seen in the trailer for "Spider-Man: No Way Home" at the same exact time as the "Venom" scene, perhaps opening up the multiverse. Or maybe it occurred at the same time as Sylvie's multiverse-altering encounter with He Who Remains in the "Loki" finale. Or perhaps, all of those events occurred at the same time.
Vulture recently interviewed "Let There Be Carnage" screenwriter Kelly Marcel and asked her about what the scene meant. She insisted that the events we see are still rooted in the Venom-verse, and that Marvel didn't have anything to do with writing them. "It's still a Venom and Eddie scene," Marcel explained. "The scene and the writing came from the Venom-verse." So what does that mean for a Venom/Spidey crossover? It looks like moviegoers will have to wait until December, when "No Way Home" is released, to find out.