How Venom 3 Addresses That MCU Connection

Venom: The Last Dance threw many fans for a loop when a certain character was highlighted in its promotional material months before the movie’s release. While Eddie Brock made his way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a post-credits scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Sony and Disney have been tight-lipped regarding Tom Holland and Tom Hardy coming face-to-face. Lending credence to the idea that the Lethal Protector might have a future in the MCU, Venom 3 has a major MCU tie-in that might be setting the stage for Venom to make his way to Earth 616.

Warning. If you have yet to watch Venom: The Last Dance, be forewarned that we’ll be diving into serious spoiler territory. If you needed a refresher on what took place in Spider-Man: No Way Home’s post-credits scene, Eddie and the symbiote found themselves in the MCU thanks to being drawn there by Dr. Strange’s spell gone awry. Spending some downtime in a nearby bar, Tom Hardy’s Brock has a heart-to-heart with a bartender played by Ted Lasso’s Cristo Fernandez. During their conversation, Brock learns about the Avengers and their battle against Thanos and this scene is featured in Venom: The Last Dance.

The Venom Cinematic Universe

At the start of Venom 3, Brock is transported back to his universe thanks to a nearby portal, encountering a bartender from his universe that is the spitting image of Cristo’s character. Much like during his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a part of the symbiote breaks off and is captured by Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Rex Strickland. Unfortunately for Cristo’s character, the organization known as the Imperium isn’t too keen on having him spread the story of encountering Venom.

Outside of the Spider-Man: No Way Home scene translated from that movie to The Last Dance, there is no other reference to the MCU in the movie. However, Knull is presented as a threat that is big enough to threaten the multiverse, even if he never directly fights Venom in the finale of the trilogy. With Tom Holland confirming that Spider-Man 4 is in the works, it will be interesting to see if the King in Black is the main antagonist, setting the stage for a Venom crossover.

The State of The MCU Symbiote

While the No Way Home scene is revisited, we don’t get a better idea of what the piece of the symbiote is up to in the MCU. Thanks to splitting off from Eddie Brock’s symbiote, there is the possibility that Peter Parker could receive the black suit from Sony’s Spider-Verse without ever having met Tom Hardy. In the comics, Spidey receives the black costume for the first time as a part of the Secret Wars crossover, thanks to a machine that supplied it on Battleworld.

Swinging back around to Cristo Fernández, we here at ComicBook.com had the opportunity to chat with the actor last year about joining the MCU and his excitement at seeing Ted Lasso co-star Brett Goldstein as Hercules, “I was very happy for him. I was very, very happy and as soon as he came out, I messaged him and he was like, ‘Ha, ha, ha, ha.’ I’m so happy to see him. I hope there’s also potential for more stuff, I’m sure there will be. He hasn’t said anything, but I like to think so too. It’s Hercules, right? There needs to be more.”

Want to see if Eddie Brock makes the leap to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the future? Follow along with ComicBook.com for all the latest updates on Venom and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.