The ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Mid-Credits Scene Has People Conflicted About One Character’s Future In The MCU

[WARNING: spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home]

This is a post about Spider-Man: No Way Home, but it’s also about Venom: Let There Be Carnage. If you’ve seen one but not the other, you should stop reading and go watch them both — beginning with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the goofiest (and therefore, best) comic book movie of the year. Now that I’ve got the fine print out of the way…

In the Venom: Let There Be Carnage post-credits scene, Venom gives Eddie Brock a taste of his universe-spanning knowledge. Eddie is transported from his own universe to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Tom Hardy’s Eddie / Venom sees Tom Holland’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man in a Daily Bugle report. “That guy,” Venom says before licking Parker’s face on the TV. Yummy. That brings us to the Spider-Man: No Way Home mid-credits scene. Eddie is in Mexico getting drunk at a bar. He’s still in the MCU, and a bartender (played by Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso!) has just told him about Thanos and the blip. Unfortunately, before Venom can interact with Spider-Man, they’re transported back to their own timeline — although a little piece of the alien symbiote remains behind.

This is important for two reasons:

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home has Spider-Man facing five villains — Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Electro, Lizard, and Sandman — but the Sinister Six couldn’t be completed because Venom was drunk and couldn’t get to New York in time. Perfect.

2. That being said, the left-behind symbiote leaves open the possibility of two Venoms: one in the MCU, one in, ahem, Sony’s legally distinct Spider-Man Universe. Only one has a history of jumping into lobster tanks, however, and that’s the only Venom for me.

Marvel fans are torn on the mid-credits scene: it was exciting to see Tom Hardy, but it’s a shame that it’s likely his only cameo in the MCU.