Tom Hardy talked about a dream crossover between Venom and Spider-Man, confirming there were indeed talks to bring the two iconic characters together in one big movie.
- April 2, 2025
AceShowbiz - "Venom" actor Tom Hardy recently discussed a highly-anticipated crossover between his character and Tom Holland's Spider-Man. In an interview on "The Discourse Podcast" from The Playlist, he confirmed there were talks to bring the two characters together in one movie.
The plans, Hardy said, "got as close as I could possibly imagine getting" before falling apart. Although the Oscar nominee did not provide explicit details on why the project never materialized, he hinted that studio politics may have played a significant role.
The crossover between the characters, iconic in comic lore, was something Hardy yearned to bring to the big screen. He noted, "Fundamentally, for me, it would be for the kids."
"Because, you know, as much as adults love superhero films, as you can tell by the box office when they're successful, I think I'm constantly reminded by children how important these characters are. And they don't know why their favorite characters aren't in films together."
Hardy's comments touch on a deeper issue: the complexity of integrating characters that belong to different film studios. The conflicting interests of Sony and Marvel compounded the difficulties.
Venom, a product of Sony's Spider-Man Universe, had brief interactions with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) during the mid-credits scenes of 2021's "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" and "Spider-Man: No Way Home." This setup suggested a promising future for more substantial crossovers, but ultimately, the characters only shared the screen briefly.
Interestingly, Ruben Fleischer, who directed the first "Venom" movie, had confirmed plans to eventually have Hardy's Venom meet Holland's Spider-Man. "That's where it's all going to lead," Fleischer had said.
Despite the barriers, Hardy cherishes his role as Venom. He said, "We were given a set of boundaries, and we were just really privileged to be able to play with a much-beloved IP like Venom in a way that we were allowed to play."
"And in that [regard], we did what we could and what we loved doing. We poured all of ourselves into it within the limits of what we were allowed to do with him."
As Hardy asserts his departure from the role with "Venom: The Last Dance," it remains uncertain whether the wall-crawler and the Lethal Protector will ever share the cinematic stage.
