Is the MCU Door Open for Venom?

There have been a lot of ambiguous denials about Venom taking place within the MCU. Kevin Feige has mostly shot it down, while others like Sony executive Amy Pascal have left the door more open. Let’s try to read through the statements and figure out what’s really going on.

One key piece of evidence recently came to light. Riz Ahmed, who plays Riot in the movie, indicated that Venom takes place in a post-apocalyptic society. What would be the reason for this? I can think of one.

Avengers 4 will be dealing with the aftermath of half the universe perishing from Thanos’ finger snap, setting up a post-apocalyptic world. The theory here is that Venom will take place at the same time that Avengers 4 is going on. There would be no other need to have this movie take place in anything other than modern day society, unless they want the ability to connect this to the MCU in the future.

I think Marvel is holding back its support for this movie joining the MCU until we know whether it’s successful. Venom existing in a world without Spider-Man just doesn’t make any sense. Either Sony is simply filling a box office slot with this release, or this is a test run to attempt to get into the MCU. I’m betting on the latter.

This tells me that Marvel did consult with Sony on the development of this movie. If it’s good, we’ll hear that Venom is part of the MCU after all. If not, they’ll stay completely separate.

Pascal also commented that movies like Venom and Silver and Black are “adjuncts” to the MCU, which is very similar to what the Marvel Netflix shows are. They exist in the same world but feature virtually no crossover. So while Venom could take place during the aftermath of Infinity War, we won’t be seeing any Avengers pop up.

Except possible Spider-Man. And that won’t be in this film, because Marvel is never going to let that happen without knowing how popular Venom will be. They don’t want to risk tainting their biggest hero in a subpar movie franchise.

At the end of day, we just have to wait and see when this movie comes out. But I do believe Marvel and Sony are setting up the possibility bring Venom and the other Spidey villains into the MCU if everything goes well. If not, Marvel can simply wash their hands of the whole thing.

This makes me all that more invested in Venom becoming a smashing success! We need that Spidey-Venom fight!