Venom Fan Theory Suggests The Amazing Spider-Man Exists in the Same Universe

Could Andrew Garfield be afforded another opportunity to suit up as Spider-Man…in a Venom sequel? One fan theory suggests that the version of the Spider-Verse that plays home to Tom Hardy’s Venom is the same world from Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man movies, and while it’s purely speculative, there’s definitely enough there to make it a convincing argument if that’s what the filmmakers wanted to do. Of course, to really dig into this theory, there are going to be some spoilers ahead for Spider-Man: No Way Home, so buckle in if you’ve seen it and beware if you haven’t.

For those who don’t know, Venom’s connection to the Spider-Man universe has been somewhat dubious from the beginning. In the comics, his origin is tied into a universe-wide Marvel event, and the symbiote was once an alternate costume for Spider-Man before he tried to destroy it, but in the movies, at least as far as anybody knows, that was never the case.

The upshot of that is that, unlike the comics, the symbiote isn’t obsessed with killing Peter Parker. Part of what made Venom a villain is as simple as the fact that Peter is a hero, and both Eddie and the symbiote itself had grudges against Parker. That allowed for Venom to be introduced as an antihero in his own movies, rather than a supervillain who had to go through a redemption phase.

Now, for those Spider-Man spoilers. Last chance to turn back.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, characters from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man franchises are pulled through a dimensional rift and find themselves fighting against (or alongside) Spider-Man (Tom Holland). Each of five villains (that we know of) is pulled away from their own world at the moment they first discovered that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. We’ll let Redditor driku12, whose theory this is, break that down:

“[Green Goblin] after the dinner scene in Spider-Man, Ock when Tobey unmasks himself and he tries to strangle him in Spider-Man 2, Sandman from an unclear time after Spider-Man 3, Lizard from right after he finds Peter’s camera in the sewer in The Amazing Spider-Man, and Electro from right when he achieves functional omnipotence for a split second before dying in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, thus figuring out who Spider-Man is,” the theory explains. 

How’s this tie to Venom? Well… 

“Venom got pulled through during the Venom: Let There Be Carnage post-credits scene right as Eddie was being connected to the hivemind, which has encountered Spider-Man various times across various timelines, thus making that his “moment” where he figures out who Spider-Man is, which is coincidentally also the first moment he even knows about Spider-Man at all,” the poster suggests.

It’s as good a theory as any as to why Venom popped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for sure. But what makes driku12 think that means he’s specifically from The Amazing Spider-Man? That’s a little less airtight.

“Functionally, in No Way Home, Venom was the sixth member of the Sinister Six, but being ‘kind of a loser,’ as he is, he spent the whole movie just chilling out in a Mexican bar instead of trying to hunt down Spider-Man immediately like everyone else, partially because of his chilled out attitude, but also because he’s all the way across the country instead of in New York from the start like everyone else,” the theory states, adding, “Everyone else who came over was from the Raimiverse and the Webbverse respectively, in equal number. One Spider-Man from each, and three villains from ea– oh wait. There’s only two Webbverse villains, but three Raimi villains and a Spider-Man from each reality. It would be strange for the spell to follow this pattern of picking a mostly equal number of people from only two specific universes, and then pulling one random guy from a completely unrelated universe where Spider-Man doesn’t even exist. If that’s the case, why not pull across any symbiote that has access to the hivemind?” 

Again — hardly a theory without any flaws at all, but it’s appealing from a logical point of view. And, as the original post suggests, “then [Andrew Garfield’s Peter] can finally fight an alien and be cool, like he wanted.”

Spider-Man: No Way Home is in theaters now. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital.