Over the years, Tom Hardy has proven to be one of the most versatile actors around. He’s starred in Oscar-winning dramas like Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant and led blockbuster smash hits like Mad Max: Fury Road. Hardy has also become a mainstay in the filmography of Christopher Nolan, most famously as the villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. However, it’s Hardy’s other superhero role that displays his entire acting range in one performance.
Fresh off the success of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sony launched its own Spider-Man Universe in 2018 with Venom. Tom Hardy was cast in the dual lead roles of Eddie Brock and Venom (previously portrayed by Topher Grace in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man 3). The prospect of a movie about a Spider-Man villain that didn’t include Spider-Man was a weird pitch, and Hardy delivered an equally unconventional performance to match. It’s that charming commitment to the role that made Venom a cult hit.
Fans especially latched onto the romantic side of Eddie and Venom’s relationship, which 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage would lean into. While Sony’s other Spider-Man Universe films like Morbius and Madame Web crashed and burned, becoming fodder for endless memes, Venom persisted. In 2024, Hardy returned for Venom: The Last Dance, which is now the second-most streamed movie on Netflix.
Will there be more Venom movies?
Hardy has said that Last Dance would be his final outing as Venom, but fans aren’t quite convinced. An end-credits scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home saw Eddie Brock and Venom briefly visit the MCU before getting sent back to their universe. This hasn’t been addressed since, but a glob of the alien symbiote was left behind in the MCU and is hypothetically still out there. It is just one of many hanging threads Marvel has yet to pick up. The upcoming Avengers: Doomsday is already bringing back the Fox X-Men in its multiversal conflict, and there are sure to be a number of unannounced cameos as well. Perhaps Hardy will appear as Venom one more time after all.
Even if Hardy doesn’t appear in the MCU, he’s already officially attached to a new Venom project; just not in the way you’d expect. Earlier this year, Sony announced that an animated Venom movie is in development. Hardy is attached to the project as a producer. Kelly Marcel, who wrote the Venom trilogy and directed The Last Dance, is also involved. While you wait for that, or for Hardy to pop up in the MCU, Venom: The Last Dance is worth watching on Netflix.