This Ryan Reynolds Sci-fi Movie Has a Hilarious Marvel Connection

It’s actually way more common than you’d think for movies to have connections in some way. Transformers and G.I. Joe, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Split and Unbreakable – these are all examples, whether through crossovers or just little references. But when it comes to the MCU, people get really hyped, especially if there’s even the slightest hint that one of its productions is linked to a movie completely outside the franchise. That’s exactly what happened in 2017 when the trailer for Life dropped, and eagle-eyed Marvel fans noticed something oddly familiar. For a while, people actually thought Life was a prequel to Venom, which was set to come out the following year.

Life is a sci-fi thriller starring Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Rebecca Ferguson. The movie follows a team of astronauts on the International Space Station who discover a soil sample from Mars containing a single-celled life form. At first, they’re fascinated, watching it evolve rapidly. But soon, things take a dark turn as the organism becomes dangerous, threatening both the crew and life on Earth. So far, just another alien life thriller – nothing too wild, right? But then, a post on Reddit sparked a wildfire of speculation.

One of the Life trailers showed a scene where people on Earth look up at the sky in shock. The catch? That exact shot had already appeared in Spider-Man 3 (2007), directed by Sam Raimi. At the time, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) was also in theaters, which – although not directly tied to the buzz – only fueled the discussion. Theories exploded online, with fans even comparing it to the surprise connections in M. Night Shyamalan’s films. “I know, right? It makes sense. And after Split, anything is possible,” one Reddit user commented.

So, what does this have to do with Venom (2018)? Well, every Marvel fan knows about the alien symbiote’s connection to Spider-Man – it’s straight out of the comics and was even teased in the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). Originally, Venom bonds with Peter Parker during “Secret Wars,” giving him the iconic black suit while also messing with his personality. Later, the symbiote moves on to Eddie Brock.

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Since Spider-Man 3 followed this exact storyline, the buzz around Life seemed pretty legit. Plus, a movie dropping under a different name and only later being revealed as part of something bigger, had already happened – just look at the Cloverfield films. So why wouldn’t fans think it could happen again? After all, Marvel Studios is notorious for keeping secrets and dropping surprises, and around the time Life hit theaters, they were already gearing up to blow everyone’s minds with Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

And then there’s Sony – the same studio behind both the Spider-Man franchise and Life. On top of that, the film’s screenwriters, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (who also wrote Deadpool in 2016), had previously been hired by Sony to write a Venom spinoff. That movie never materialized, but MCU fans love crafting theories that actually make sense. When asked about it, the writers even played along in an interview with ComicBook. “Yes, the answer is yes!” Wernick joked. “We are tied to Venom! We are the prequel to Venom!”

Obviously, they were just messing around, but at the time, they never outright denied it either. Eventually, the truth came out – the Life trailer and Spider-Man 3 clip weren’t some secret MCU connection; it was just a case of Hollywood reusing generic footage. As wild as it sounds, this happens all the time. Why film extras looking up at the sky when you already have a perfectly good shot of that sitting in the archives? In the end, that scene didn’t even make it into the actual Life movie – it was likely just a clever way to spice up the trailer and grab attention.

In the end, the whole rumor turned into free marketing for Venom, which ended up being the highest-grossing film of Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff series, raking in $856 million worldwide. In a way, Life‘s plot could have worked as a prequel to the villain’s origin story, and while that would’ve been an insane reveal, to this day, it remains one of the best and most hilarious MCU-related rumors of all time.

Life is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.