Marvel and Sony have been in a bit of a back-and-forth lately, primarily over the latter’s plans to launch a new comic book movie franchise based off of Spider-Man anti-villain Venom. (The thinking, presumably, being that while Sony gave Peter Parker back to Marvel so that he could play around in the MCU, there’s no reason for his associated characters to molder on the shelf.) At first, Marvel made it pretty clear: There was no chance of seeing Tom Holland swing by to duke it out with Tom Hardy’s Venom. But then, former Sony head—and current Spider-Man: Homecoming producer—Amy Pascal propped that slammed door back open, saying that Venom (and the Silver Sable/Black Cat movie being developed down the line) will be “adjuncts” to Homecoming, and that there’s always the possibility of Spidey swinging by.
Pascal gave that interview while sitting next to Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, who, in hindsight, appears to have been giving her the expression you give someone when you would dearly like them to stop talking, and potentially complicating your very delicate lattice-work of multi-million dollar films.
Hence, presumably, why Feige made it very, very clear at the Homecoming premiere last night: No Spider-Man in Venom, period. “No,” he said flatly, before adding, “I think the folks there are making a great Venom movie and I don’t know much about it, but I know they’re off to a good start with Tom Hardy.” Instead, as previously reported, Venom will face off against his monstrous serial killer child, Carnage, in what we can only assume will be an absolute explosion of red and black CGI.