Spoiler Space: What, if anything, do the Venom: The Last Dance credits scenes mean?

Spoiler Space offers thoughts on, and a place to discuss, the plot points we can’t disclose in our official review. Fair warning: This article features plot details of Venom: The Last Dance.

The Venom movie series is over… long live Venom? That seems to be the company line from the magical-thinking division of Sony—presumably the shingle of the studio that handles all plans to continue making Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man. Their hopefulness paid dividends with the release of the first two Venom movies, and even a somewhat less successful third go-around seems likely to push the series total close to (if not necessarily over) the $2 billion mark worldwide, an astonishing success for a character without the same recognition as Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Batman, and so on. Unsurprisingly, the strategy proved difficult to replicate; both Morbius and Madame Web failed to become similar sensations. Though Kraven The Hunter still could theoretically excite audiences later this year, it seems as if the SPUMGAG (Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Guys And Gals) has simply filled their Spider-Man void with one other character. A hit of that sweet, sweet Venom may be needed on any future projects.

As such, it seems like a problem that Venom (or the toothier half of him, anyway) sacrifices himself during the climax of Venom: The Last Dance, permanently separating from Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), the erstwhile reporter who served as his host body for the last six years of screen time. (In the movie, far less time has passed, which makes Eddie’s sentimental attachment to his globby parasite a little harder to buy.) The death of Venom (or Eddie) is framed as the only way to destroy the codex sought by Knull (Andy Serkis), a psychotic being from another realm whose existence pre-dates the universe. (Sure.) Knull was captured by the symbiotes he created; only the codex can free him, at which point he will resume death and destruction of all things. (OK.) In Venom: The Last Dance, the death of the Venom symbiote destroys the codex. (Fine.) Cue the Maroon 5 and Eddie wistfully looking at the Statue Liberty that his demonstrably worse half yearned to see for himself. Pretty stupid, mostly unearned, slapdash in execution, kind of charming despite itself and because of Hardy trying his best to sell it all… it’s a very Venom-y ending.

What now, then? Do we follow Eddie Brock as he rebuilds his life as an extremely sloppy investigative journalist, possibly on TikTok? No: In a mid-credits scene, Knull announces his resolve to, uh, still get free and resume his reign of terror.

Though this desire was really already implied earlier—it’s basically a mid-credits scene of Knull saying “Nothing has changed! I’m still the Steppenwolf of this universe!”—it’s clearly intended as a Thanos-style “I will do it myself” note of mic-dropping ominousness, minus any particular means or hints as to how the Thanosization of Knull might be accomplished. Faithful fans might then wait around for a post-credits scene for more information or, at least, a final hat-tip or gag related to our man Venom. Instead, there is another laughless return appearance from the beleaguered bartender (Cristo Fernández) seen in several previous scenes, and, more importantly (?), a cockroach scuttling around the destroyed Area 51, dipping into a lingering sample of the Venom symbiote.

Though Hardy has been upfront that this Venom storyline is over, he has also mentioned that he would love to see the character fight Spider-Man in some capacity; clearly, Sony would love to see one of their recent movies finally actually cross over with the Tom Holland version the MCU created when the company licensed Spidey back to them on a temporary basis. This kind of face-off would also be a way of retiring the Venom movie series while reviving the character in a bigger, more popular universe (and not forcing the Madame Web/Venom/Morbius team-up that would be more perversely fascinating). Obviously the MCU is unwilling to commit to that at the moment—and if they were, they’d probably try to keep it under wraps. So instead, these scenes essentially announce the intention to take Spider-Man without Spider-Man and spin it further off into Venom without Venom. They’ve teased a movie where, at best, Knull fights a super-roach.

Indeed, that’s what the filmmakers halfheartedly teased at the recent New York Comic Con: More Knull! You haven’t seen the last of this guy! (Honestly, we’ve barely seen the first of him. He’s only in The Last Dance for a few non-tantalizing minutes.) But then, teasing stuff that hasn’t been given more than cursory thought has become a rich SPUMGAG tradition. Specifically, these movies have assembled perhaps the most burnt-on-the-outside, raw-on-the-inside batch of credit cookies in movie history. Though the first Venom kept it relatively simple by teasing a sequel, it’s been a mess since Let There Be Carnage. In the mid-credits scene of that film, Venom starts babbling about other universes, conveniently just before Venom/Eddie get mysteriously transported into the MCU, where J. Jonah Jameson is revealing the secret identity of Spider-Man as one Peter Parker.

Then, in the mid-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom/Eddie gets zapped back to their home universe (along with everyone else Dr. Strange’s spell sends back) before they have a chance to actually do anything—but through their inexplicable Sony Powers, are able to leave behind a bit of Venom Goo, chasing a ha-ha-just-kidding with a shameless or-are-we? This zip-zap is basically reprised at the beginning of The Last Dance, as Venom hollers, in discount-Deadpool style, that he’s had enough of this multiverse shit. (Yes, what a wild and convoluted five minutes it’s been, Venom.) Meanwhile, Morbius used the same No Way Home mechanics to engineer the most inexplicable move of all: Bringing Adrian Toomes, the Vulture from the MCU, into the shared universe of Morbius and Venom, and deciding that this would create in Vulture and Morbius a shared animosity toward Spider-Man (who seems to exist in this universe, presumably having been born in 2003 during Madame Web), which as yet has failed to come to pass.

No one reading about superhero movies online needs a stern lecture about how the SPUMGAG movies are really just playing at the business of being big, beloved superhero-universe movies while riding Spider-Man’s apparently supersized coattails. Honestly, people who pay a lot of attention to this stuff might actually underestimate the degree to which these movies can fake it ’til they make it, given how general audiences may not be aware of the finer points of distinction between the universes that hold this or that Spider-Man, Venom, assorted Wolverine variants, or, like, Aquaman. One could even argue that the incoherence of these Venom endings simply lays MCU-style storytelling bare for what it is: false negative promises (Venom is dead! Unless, you know, we need him not to be!) chased by false positive promises (There’s so much more cool stuff coming, guys! Maybe with Spider-Man! But if not, it’ll still be really cool!).

Marvel (and DC, and Fox Marvel, and, for that matter, Sony, who also made those Spider-Verse cartoons!) have all transcended this carny-barker approach in the past, even while consistently sequel-teasing and franchise-planning. What really resonates about the end of Venom: The Last Dance is the fact that—needledrops notwithstanding—a whole hit trilogy can pass by where it feels like nothing much of consequence has managed to happen. Its monster-movie undertones, its supposedly self-aware sense of humor, its queerness… these are all just amorphous ideas of what a Venom movie might be, if you cut it some slack. The series ends (or does it?!) as its newfound marquee character began: writhing around, threatening to take on more substantial shape.