Did Tom Hardy Just Tease Venom Will Collide With Spider-Man?

When it was first announced that a Venom movie was being developed, fans began to speculate about an appearance from Tom Holland as Spider-Man, only for rights issues between studios to seemingly squash those hopes, but with a new deal being confirmed between Sony and Disney and with Venom star Tom Hardy sharing a photo of himself dressed as Holland’s Spider-Man on Instagram, only to promptly delete it, the speculation flames of a sequel appearance have been stoked. Hardy has a history of cryptic social media posts that confirm rumors that are circling, so it’s possible that, knowing his history, the actor was merely sharing an innocuous photo that he deleted solely because he knew how it could be interpreted. It’s also possible, of course, that this photo was the exact confirmation that has led him to delete previous posts.

When Venom landed in theaters, there was a relatively strict delineation between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony’s universe of Spider-Man-related films, with the two series seemingly occupying a similar space without the status of Spider-Man being directly addressed. All that changed earlier this year when news broke that Sony and Disney had ended their creative partnership, putting the status of all of these universes in limbo.

The cause for the split was reportedly due to Disney wanting to invest a larger stake in the production of Spider-Man films, as Sony was previously footing the bill, in exchange for a larger chunk of the profits. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige served as a producer on Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, offering a significant amount of creative input on the endeavors, while Sony allowed the character they owned to appear in various MCU films.

Disney and Sony were ultimately able to come to an agreement about the character’s future, which includes collaborating on one more Spider-Man film. A Venom sequel has already been announced, which is said to focus on Woody Harrelson’s Carnage, having been teased in the original film, so it’s likely that, were Spider-Man to appear, it would either be in a similar post-credits tease or he would possibly only tangentially appear, similar to Tony Stark’s involvement in Homecoming.

Venom 2 is set for October 2, 2020. Spider-Man 3 hits theaters on July 16, 2021 while another Spider-Man-related film, Morbius, is currently in production and set for a July 31, 2020 release.

Do you think Hardy was confirming Holland’s appearance? Let us know in the comments below!