The superhero genre is showing no signs of slowing down, as various cinematic universes compete at the box office. That includes’ Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which has been noticeably missing Tom Holland‘s hero. Tom Hardy went viral for saying he got “close” to a crossover with the wall crawler, and now he’s clarifying what he meant. Let’s break it all down.
Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order not-so-patently waited for Eddie Brock and Peter Parker to meet, to no avail. This looked like it was really happening thanks to Venom 2‘s credits scene, which saw him travel through the multiverse as a result of Doctor Strange’s Spider-Man: No Way Home spell. But it never actually came to fruition, and Hardy spoke to THR about his viral comments, offering:
I didn’t say that, at all. That’s kind of moved on from a very simple quote that I said specifically about my children watching Venom. It’s hard to explain to a young child why their favorite superheroes can’t be in a film together and that’s such a shame. And we almost got it, but it didn’t happen, which is the truth. It didn’t happen. And we almost got together because I remember being in the Spider-Man movie and you know it was connected, and it just didn’t happen. The trilogy is now over and it didn’t happen. So, it didn’t get killed by anything, it just didn’t happen.
Well, that’s much more clear. The crossover being “close” was likely a reference to Tom Hardy‘s character being transported across the multiverse. Unfortunately he never met Peter Parer, and Venom 3‘s opening scene saw him transported back to his own universe. Womp womp.
Despite this clarification, Hardy’s comments will likely still set the internet ablaze among comic book fans. After all, he mentioned nearly being in No Way Home alongside other villains like Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Electro and more. And I’m sure many moviegoers are wishing that did indeed happeen.
While clarifying his comments, Hardy once again mentioned being bummed that young fans couldn’t watch Spider-Man and Venom come to blows on the big screen. These characters are intimately connected on the page, so it felt like an inevitably… especially once Let There Be Carnage‘s ending seemed to set it up. Alas, it looks like we’ll probably never see Hardy and Holland together on the big screen playing these beloved characters.
The fact that three Venom movies came and went without this crossover is seriously a head scratcher. And Spider-Man’s lack of inclusion in Sony’s franchise seems to have negatively affected projects like Morbius, Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web.
Tom Holland is expected to return as Peter Parker when Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters on July 31st, 2026. So we shouldn’t expect the character to pop up in any projects on the 2025 movie release list.
