Credit: Sony Pictures/MarvelSince the release of the new Kraven the Hunter teaser trailer, it seems Sony is restructuring the “Venom-verse” to be more of a Spidey “Villain-verse.” The end of the hilariously ridiculed movie, Morbius (2022), hinted at a possible team-up when the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man villain, the Vulture (Michael Keaton), requested an audience with the unhinged, vampiric anti-hero (Jared Leto). Cut back to the Kraven teaser, which teased the impending origin of Kraven, but potentially the origin of the Spidey foe, the Rhino. This build-up has fans speculating on whether all these characters will eventually appear in Tom Hardy’s Venom. The third film is increasingly expected to be the main connective thread to make the inevitable union of these Spider-Man villains make sense.
Tom Hardy has certainly hyped up the fanbase with the recent released of a black and white image on social media. It depicts the distinguished actor roaring at a werewolf-looking creature. His caption of ‘V3,’ followed by a flame, 100% and heart emoji galvanized fans to analyze whether this lycanthrope creature will be Venom’s newest adversary in the third installment. The one conclusion Marvel aficionados have arrived at is it will be the lesser known Spider-Man baddie, Man-Wolf.
Man-Wolf was a creation by Marvel legends, Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. The character made his first appearance in the 124th issue of Spider-Man in 1973, then led his own feature in Creatures on the Loose #30-37 (1974-1975). The hairy monstrosity was the son of the fan-favorite character, J. Jonah Jameson. Colonel John Jameson was an astronaut who found a mystical stone during a moon-landing mission. When he returned, his exposure to the object transformed him into a bloodthirsty, wolf-like creature during full moons.
This sympathetic villain would be a fearsome challenge for Eddie Brock and Venom. Unfortunately, the writers would have to either retcon the story they have created or stray away from the source material. The first Venom (2018) actually featured the astronaut, John Jameson (Chris O’Hara), who was employed by the Life Foundation. Yet, he was killed when a symbiote tried to bond to him. It can be an easy fix, but it will need to be addressed to maintain continuity.
The world of Spider-Man has been a gold mine for Sony Pictures for over 20 years. Once they bought the film rights to the web-slinger and his treasure trove of characters in 1998 for $7 million, they immediately started development to bring the amazing hero and his world to life. Since 2002, Sony has made eight live-action Spider-Man movies and two animated features. These 10 films have gone on to gross around $10 billion for the studio, not including the Venom-verse movies.
Despite their success, Sony has been desperately trying to create profitable Spider-verse films to maintain their contract stipulation. It states that they need to release a Spider-Man (or an affiliated character) film every few years to retain the film rights to the intellectual property. Sony definitely intends to keep their “golden goose” out of the hands of Marvel Studios, but their sloppy frenzy to churn out Spidey character films without properly connecting the universes might be their undoing with viewers. By that point, not even Tom Hardy’s brilliant character performance can save Venom from poisoning itself.
Venom 3 is slated for an October 2024 release date, but that may be postponed as it is one of the many productions that has shutdown due to the Actors strike.