Avengers Reference Possibly Spotted In Venom: Let There Be Carnage Trailer

It looks like the Avengers may exist in the Venom universe. Today, Sony Pictures released the new trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the highly-anticipated sequel to 2018's Venom. Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock and Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady, the serial killer who becomes Carnage. During the trailer, detective Patrick Mulligan reads a copy of The Daily Bugle, which seemingly connects Venom to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. The paper's front page has a story on Kasady, but when Mulligan ruffles the pages, there's another headline inside that seems like it could be for a story about the Avengers. Take a look below.

The idea that the Avengers exist in this universe is interesting since director Andy Serkis says the characters in Venom are unaware of Spider-Man's existence, let alone other heroes. "Obviously, there are links between Venom and Spider-Man in the Marvel Universe and the Spider-Man story, but in this, we're treating this very much as it's his own world, the Venom story is his own world," Serkis says. "There are nods and little moments just like this, the newspaper Daily Bugle, of course, but on the whole, he's unaware, they're unaware, at this point of other characters like Spider-Man. So that's the way we've chosen to play this particular episode of the movie but well we'll wait and see what little things you can pick out of it."

This moment from the trailer may throw fuel on the fire of the theory that these Sony Spider-Man spinoff characters could appear in the next Marvel Cinematic Univers Spider-Man film. Regardless, Sony plans to continue expanding its Spider-Man-centric Marvel film universe with the upcoming Morbius movie starring Jared Leto, releasing early next year. Other related projects in development focus on Kraven the Hunter, Nightwatch, the Sinister Six, and Madame Web, and Silk.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage pits Venom against his arch-nemesis from the comics, Carnage. Andy Serkis directs the film from a screenplay written by Kelly Marcel, based on a story by Marcel and Tom Hardy. Hardy stars Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom alongside Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady / Carnage, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Reid Scott as Anne Weying's boyfriend, Dan Lewis, and Naomie Harris as Shriek. The trailer revealed Stephen Graham is playing Patrick Mulligan, who becomes host to the symbiote Toxin in the comics.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens in theaters on September 24th.