After seeing the opening of Venom: The Last Dance, fans immediately realized that there was a Spider-Man: No Way Home-sized retcon.
Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) has always been frustratingly fickle regarding its inconsistent mentions and references to Spider-Man in its movies. One of the most erroneous was Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man appearing in the background of the Morbius trailer.
However, the director of Morbius confirmed that Spider-Man easter egg was exclusive to the trailer, which made the movie's post-credit scene with Michael Keaton's Vulture even funnier, who directly name-dropped Spider-Man to the titular anti-hero anyway.
Not to mention how the post-credit scene from Venom: Let There Be Carnage directly teased a confrontation with Tom Holland's Spider-Man. But, as fans know, that never panned out with Tom Hardy's Eddie and Venom being unceremoniously yanked back to their universe in the last moments of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
How Venom 3 Retconned No Way Home's Final Scene
Venom: The Last Dance began exactly where Spider-Man: No Way Home ended, with Eddie drunk in a bar questioning aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the recreation of this post-credit scene has some stark differences.
Transcript of Spider-Man: No Way Home Post-Credit Scene:
Eddie Brock: "Okay. Okay, okay, okay, I-I understand that, I'm just saying that... that this whole place... here, it's just tons of s... of superpeople."
Venom: "And he has been saying it. For hours."
Eddie Brock: "Alright, tell me again, I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. There was a billionaire, he had a tin suit, and he could fly, right?"
Eddie Brock: "Okay. And there was a really angry green man."
Bartender: "Hulk."
Eddie Brock: "Hulk."
Venom: "Yeah, and you thought Lethal Protector was a shit name!"
Eddie Brock: "Yeah, because... it is. Now, tell me again about your purple alien that loves stones. Because I tell you what, man, aliens, they do not love stones."
Venom: "Eddie..."
Eddie Brock: "No, I mean, they do not love stones..."
Venom: "Don't start!"
Eddie Brock: "You know what aliens love? Eating brains! 'Cause that's what they do, alright?"
Bartender: "Señor, he made my family disappear. For five years!"
Eddie Brock: "Five years? That's a long time... Hey, maybe I... Maybe I should go to New York and speak to this, um... Spider-Man."
Venom: "Eddie! We are drunk! Let's go skinny-dip!"
Eddie Brock: "I don't think we should skinny-dip."
Bartender: "Sir, you have to pay the bill."
Venom: "What is happening? No! No! No, we just got here! No, not again!"
Eddie Brock: "Whoa..."
The initial post-credit scene from No Way Home was filled with references to MCU characters, like Tony Stark's Iron Man and Thanos, and even a name-drop of the Hulk. Spider-Man was also mentioned directly by Eddie Brock, who wanted to speak with the teenage superhero in New York.
However, all but one of these references were removed from the beginning of the Venom threequel. Some could be excused to save time, such as the Iron Man and Hulk jokes being skipped, but removing the reference to Spider-Man felt especially obvious, considering its placement in the original scene.
Transcript for the opening of Venom: The Last Dance:
Eddie Brock: "So, you're saying in this universe, there's the superhero people. Hi, so tell me again about your purple alien friend who really loves stones. I'll tell you what, man, aliens, they do not love stones."
Venom: "Eddie, don't start."
Eddie Brock: "Do not love stones. Do you know what they love? They love eating brains because that's what they do."
Bartender: "Senior, he made my family disappear for five years."
Eddie Brock: "Five years. See, well, that is a long time. All right."
Venom: "Eddie! We are drunk!"
While the allusion to Thanos and his "stones" stayed, the name-drop of Spider-Man was explicitly expunged from Eddie's departing dialogue since it initially appeared directly after his "five years" response, which also stayed.
Outside of the dialogue, an even bigger retcon was how Eddie and Venom were returned to their universe. Instead of being whisked away through Doctor Strange's spell, they are violently flung backward through a Sling Ring-esque portal.
More confusingly, it appeared to be a portal created by this movie's villain, Knull, who had opened multiple identical-looking portals for his xenophages to search the universe for the Codex in the previous scene.
Why The Continued Avoidance of Spider-Man?
At this point, it feels like Charlie Brown and the football, given how often Sony and actors like Tom Hardy have teased Spider-Man appearing in their cinematic universe, only to yank the possibility of him appearing away by the next installment.
It's not like Spider-Man is a taboo word that Sony could not legally use since, as previously mentioned, the Vulture did exactly that in the post-credit scene of Morbius. So, why was not it kept in The Last Dance?
One possibility is that Sony did not want to build up false expectations in the audience about Spider-Man appearing, especially since one of the driving forces of the plot was Eddie and Venom attempting to escape law enforcement by hiding in New York.
The second is that Marvel Studios simply asked them to remove the reference, as it would become irrelevant or interfere with their potential plans for Spider-Man 4, which could still involve Sony's Venom.
But the most baffling of all is why Sony changed how Eddie was returned to the SSU. Instead of returning to his world through Doctor Strange's spell, Eddie is seemingly forcefully pulled back into his universe by one of Knull's portals, raising so many annoying questions that could be a whole other article.
Some fans have attempted to explain this away as Sony just reusing the effect. However, not only would the original effect be vastly cheaper, but they already did it themselves in the first post-credit scene in Morbius when Vulture landed in the wrong universe (despite Doctor Strange's spell not working like that).
In fact, this whole mess of confusion and retconning could have been completely avoided if they had simply started The Last Dance with Eddie already back in the SSU.
Venom: The Last Dance is currently playing in theaters.
