No Way Home Is A Huge Disservice To Tom Hardy’s Venom
Spider-Man: No Way Home featured an MCU cameo from Tom Hardy's Venom, but his appearance ended up being a huge disservice to the character.
Tom Hardy's brief MCU appearance during Spider-Man: No Way Home's mid-credits scene is a huge disservice to Venom. No Way Home followed Peter Parker (Tom Holland) as he dealt with the aftermath of his identity being revealed to the world by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal). Peter enlisted the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), which escalated the situation to a multiversal crisis. Unfortunately, after such a big buildup, Tom Hardy's Venom was an afterthought in the mid-credits scene.
The multiverse element of No Way Home's plot allowed for the inclusion of five villains from past Spider-Man franchises, not to mention the previous Spider-Man actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. What Marvel Studios and Sony put together in No Way Home is the closest they have come to adapting the Sinister Six on the big screen. With the help of Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Men, the MCU's Spider-Man was able to cure Green Goblin (Willam Dafoe), Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina), Electro (Jamie Foxx), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and the Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and ultimately send them back to their respective universes.
Venom's absence from the film was anticlimactic, especially after the post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage teased a Venom versus Spider-Man fight in the MCU. Not only was this a disservice to the character, but it also left a lot of viewers who were hoping to see Tom Hardy's Venom interact with Tom Holland's Spider-Man disappointed. It felt as though Venom's presence in the film was only meant to serve a specific purpose, which further cheapens the antihero's appearance. The post-credits scene for Venom 2 went to great lengths to establish the anonymity between the symbiote and Spider-Man through a multiversal hive mind shared by the alien species. Therefore, audiences were not expecting Hardy to have such a brief appearance as Eddie Brock in No Way Home. Ever since No Way Home's first trailer showed villains from different Sony franchises, fans have been clamoring to see a Venom versus Spider-Man fight in Spidey's MCU threequel, and while Venom 2's credits stinger gave them hope, it's No Way Home contemporary let them down.
What further demeaned Venom's character was the manner of his appearance. The sole purpose of Tom Hardy's MCU cameo seems to be introducing the Venom symbiote into the MCU, a feat that could have been accomplished in a myriad of other ways. While this confirms that Holland's Spider-Man will face off against Venom at some point down the line in the MCU, it won't be Hardy's version of the character. This disappointing fact proves that Hardy's appearance in No Way Home was only meant to further the narrative and tease Tom Holland's next MCU Spider-Man trilogy, rather than include Venom in the MCU's sandbox.
The duration and purpose of Tom Hardy's Venom in No Way Home is a huge disservice to the character and audiences hoping for him to be integrated more fully into the MCU. Rather than exploring the potential Venom could have in the MCU, his character was wasted and sent back to a universe where he cannot interact with Spider-Man or any other major Marvel character. Fortunately, Spider-Man: Not Way Home's mid-credits did confirm that Tom Holland will come face to face with a version of Venom in his next three MCU Spider-Man movies–it just won't be the Tom Hardy version that audiences love.
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