How ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ May Be Setting up Venom

WARNING: There are major end-game spoilers ahead for Marvel’s Spider-Man. If you haven’t played the game, or if you haven’t finished the game, now would be the time to turn back. You have been warned!

Marvel fans around the world had one question, asked incessantly, leading up to the launch of Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4: Will Venom be in the game? We were all hoping to see Eddie Brock show up in one way or another, or else hoping to see a symbiote take over Peter Parker for part of the game, transforming him into Venom or “black suit Spider-Man.” While Eddie Brock did make it into the game, Venom did not.

However, during one of Marvel’s Spider-Man‘s post credits scenes, Insomniac Games drops a huge narrative bomb on players and sets up an inevitable sequel which will almost certainly feature Venom as an antagonist, if not a playable character. The twist? Eddie Brock won’t be the Venom host. Instead, it looks like Harry Osborn is becoming Venom.

Throughout the game, players are fed the notion that Harry Osborn is away on some kind of European vacation or getaway. Peter Parker is left checking up on all of Harry’s research stations, which are Oscorp projects scattered throughout the city in his absence. At the end of the game, though, we discover that Harry has been in NYC the entire time. Norman Osborn has been keeping him suspended in some kind of medical tube while he researches cures for an illness that ultimately killed his wife (Harry’s mother).

There are two huge things fans noticed during this scene. The first is that this lab is filled with “super spiders.” Osborn is attempting to reverse engineer the kinds of spiders that gave Spider-Man his powers, hoping that they may provide some kind of regenerative secret for his son.

The second thing we noticed is that, surrounding Harry in his suspension tube, are traces of what appear to be symbiote “goop.” We can’t confirm that this is the symbiote since Insomniac Games confirmed that no symbiotes would be in the game, but the goop doesn’t leave much to the imagination. It’s also seemingly aware, or intelligent. At the end of the scene, Norman places his hand up to the glass, reaches out toward his son, and we see that the black goop reaches back and touches the opposite side of the glass.

There’s no mistaking it. We’re definitely going to see Venom in the next Spider-Man game, and when we do, Harry Osborn will be the host.