The opening scene of Venom: The Last Dance has a significant retcon of the post-credit scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In the original scene, Eddie Brock, who was transported to the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Doctor Strange’s spell, mentions wanting to go to New York and talk to Spider-Man—that’s gone now.
The reference to Eddie Brock wanting to meet Spider-Man has been removed from the Venom sequel, along with other MCU character references (thanks, TheDirect). This kind of makes you think that there is some tension – once again – between Marvel and Sony. Spider-Man owes a lot of its success to the integration with Marvel, but Sony’s standalone Spider-Man universe movies haven’t done well aside from Venom and the animated universe.
Old version:
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…”
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New version:
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!”
Overall, the decision to remove Spider-Man’s name from the scene is baffling. However, Sony has a history of teasing Spider-Man appearances in its Spider-Man Universe movies, only to retract those teases. For example, a trailer for Morbius featured Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man in the background, a detail later confirmed to be a trailer-exclusive Easter egg.
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There are several possible explanations for this retcon. One theory suggests that Sony avoided creating false expectations among viewers about Spider-Man’s potential appearance in the film. Another theory states that Marvel Studios requested the removal of the reference to avoid interfering with future Spider-Man plans, which could still involve Sony’s Venom.
Spider-Man is a huge IP for Sony and Marvel, so it takes a lot of agreement and planning for the companies to make things work. It’s likely something that happened with the background. Perhaps the most confusing change is how Eddie is returned to the Spider-Man Universe. Instead of being transported back through Doctor Strange’s spell, he is violently pulled back through a portal created by the film’s villain, Knull.
This change raises multiple questions about the future of Venom since he was not returned to his own universe. We’ll have to wait for a future Spider-Man universe movie to find out what happened.