Small Details You Missed In The Venom: The Last Dance Trailer
Three years after the release of "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his extraterrestrial symbiote partner are coming back for what's supposedly their final lap. The new trailer for "Venom: The Last Dance" teases an epic climax to Sony's comic book trilogy, with more invaders from Venom's world reaching Earth and stirring up trouble for the antihero duo. The same irreverent tone that defined the previous "Venom" movies remains, but there is a sense of finality to the new "Last Dance" trailer.
Hardy returns alongside prior "Venom" co-stars like Peggy Lu and Stephen Graham. The third film is also bringing in a bunch of new names, including lauded actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. At the start of the trailer, Eddie and Venom seem to be living their best vigilante lives after defeating Carnage (Woody Harrelson) in the previous film. However, things take a turn for the dangerous when more aliens arrive, sparking a mysterious government investigation and some weird science. It seems that much of the film will follow Eddie and Venom on the run from the military.
While we wait for "Venom: The Last Dance" to be released in theaters on October 25, the trailer will have to tide fans over. Here are some small details, Easter eggs, and curious clues you may have missed in the "Venom: The Last Dance" trailer.
Detective Mulligan becomes Toxin
Ostensibly serving as a swan song for one of the most bafflingly persistent superhero series of the MCU era, it almost goes without saying that "The Last Dance" will need to pay off everything the previous films set up so far. Fortunately, there are strong hints that the threequel will be doing just that with the character of Detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham), who is seen trapped in a containment cell (probably under the care of Chiwetel Ejiofor and/or Juno Temple's obviously antagonistic mystery characters).
In the comics, Mulligan eventually becomes the host of Carnage's spawn Toxin, effectively making him Eddie Brock's symbiote grandchild. Like his father, Toxin has a, well, toxic relationship with Venom, and is significantly stronger than any other symbiote that came before him in his lineage.
Graham's Detective Mulligan was last seen essentially left for dead in the cathedral where Carnage (Woody Harrelson) and Venom had their own "Last Dance," with Mulligan suffering harsh torture from the former's lover-slash-partner-in-crime Shriek (Naomie Harris). Though it isn't immediately clear how, his interaction with her appears to have had a lasting effect on Mulligan even after her death, with his eyes ominously glowing blue in one of the film's final shots. How or if this will tie into his Toxin transformation remains to be seen, but his presence in the trailer seemingly teases some kind of dangerous metamorphosis for the character.
It's a Ted Lasso reunion
After the end of "Ted Lasso" Season 3 brought the acclaimed football dramedy series to a close, you probably wouldn't have picked "Venom: The Last Dance" as the venue for a cast reunion. And yet, the new trailer features two major players from the Apple TV+ hit — Juno Temple, who plays Keeley Jones on "Ted Lasso," and Cristo Fernández, who plays AFC Richmond star Dani Rojas.
Temple's "Venom" character is a mystery right now, though some unsubstantiated fan rumors claim that she will become the yellow symbiote known as Scream — more on what that means in a minute.
Fernández's character is arguably more baffling. If you saw "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and stuck around for the post-credits scene, you'll recognize him as the bartender who serves Eddie Brock. That scene takes place on Earth-616, the MCU dimension, because Eddie is briefly pulled out of his own reality by the spell cast by Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange. However, in the "Venom: The Last Dance" trailer, Fernández appears in his bar alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor's character, who's supposedly from Eddie's universe. How these disparate realities fit together in the new movie remains to be seen.
Is Juno Temple playing a fan-favorite symbiote?
In the trailer, Juno Temple's yet-unnamed character arrives at an undercover facility where symbiotes are in containment. She appears to have deep involvement in the experiments and keeps them top-secret, telling Chiwetel Ejiofor's character, "They always knew it was impossible. That we were alone in the universe. And it's our job to ensure that remains a secret."
When Temple was cast in "Venom 3," a common guess to who she plays is the symbiote Scream. In the comics, Scream (created by David Michelinie and Ron Lim) is one of the most recognizable symbiotes, with her eye-catching yellow and red look serving in stark contrast to Venom's black and white appearance. While there have been a few hosts of Scream, the main one is Donna Diego, a volunteer with the Life Foundation whose symbiote is among a handful split from Venom. Riot, who bonds with Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) in "Venom," is another symbiote split off from Venom.
In the trailer, Temple can be seen with a scar on her neck that looks like the beginnings of a symbiote taking over its host. She observes multiple symbiote samples, with one giving off a yellow hue, a similar color to Scream. While the scene doesn't confirm Scream is coming to "Venom: The Last Dance," introducing the fan-favorite symbiote in the last hurrah of the franchise as a scientist-turned-symbiote would offer a deserved showcase for a character audiences haven't seen before. She could be an ally or villain of Venom's — or both — as a symbiote invasion breaks out on Earth.
Is this Earth-616 or the Sonyverse?
In the post-credits scene for 2021's "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," both Eddie and his symbiote companion are suddenly pulled into Earth-616 — also known as Earth-199999, which we know as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Those who saw "Spider-Man: No Way Home" later that same year surely remember that this was caused by Peter Parker's (Tom Holland) multiversal meddling and that Eddie presumably spent the entirety of the film's events drowning his astonishment at the bar of what appeared to be an island resort. After a brief conversation with a hilariously Thanos-traumatized bartender (Cristo Fernández), he was sent back to the Sonyverse almost as suddenly as he had been taken from it — leaving behind a threatening glob of symbiote goo.
At the time, it seemed like this might've been Sony and Marvel Studios finding a way to get Holland's Spider-Man a black suit of his own. But in the trailer for "The Last Dance," Chiwetel Ejiofor's yet-to-be-revealed military antagonist is seen tracking down that very glob to the island resort. Fernández's bartender can even be seen in one shot cowering in the background — but is he the same man that has yet to recover from "The Blip?"
One possible explanation is that the two people — and, by extension, the locations they inhabit — are merely identical variants coexisting in the same multiverse. When Eddie was brought back to the Sonyverse, it's certainly plausible he simply left another glob of Venom lying around. It's unlikely Ejiofor is playing a universe-hopping character or reprising his Baron Mordo here — rumors are that he's playing Orwell Taylor, a villain with ties to "Iron Man" — so this two-glob theory is the most likely explanation Sony will use. But that doesn't really answer our questions from "No Way Home," nor does it make Sony's parallel, Spider-Man-less universe any easier to follow.
A Rhys Ifans cameo makes everything more confusing
Arguably the most surprising shot in this trailer lasts less than a second, and features a startling blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Rhys Ifans. Ifans previously played the dual roles of Dr. Curtis Connors and the Lizard in 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man" and returned in the MCU feature "Spider-Man: No Way Home." We don't know if he's playing the same character here — if Chiwetel Ejiofor can double-dip in the MCU and the Sonyverse as different characters, why not Ifans?
If this is Dr. Connors, he's seen here wielding a guitar with two hands (the character is missing an arm in "The Amazing Spider-Man"). It's worth recalling that while Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield's Peter Parkers did manage to reverse his Lizard transformation in "No Way Home," we never saw for sure if his regenerated arm was reversed as well. Which brings us to one, key question — would it make any kind of multiversal sense whatsoever if this is the same Curt Connors? The answer is ... kind of?
Ifans' Dr. Connor's being in the Sonyverse squares with the (albeit incredibly vague) internal logic established by Michael Keaton's Vulture during the post-credits scene of "Morbius." ("I'm not sure how I got here. Has to do with Spider-Man, I think.") If we're adopting the premise that Holland's Parker actually didn't send all the villains back to their own universes, it's equally plausible that Dr. Connors wound up in Venom's world rather than his "Amazing" home. It would certainly explain why he seems so happy, as a cross-country road trip surely beats the prison cell that otherwise awaited him.
Space Oddity's connection to the Venom storyline
"Eddie, my home has found us," Venom warns Eddie Brock, over a song sung by the ultimate alien invader himself, David Bowie. The song is "Space Oddity," which is a cheeky nod to the massive alien symbiote attack that promises to be the big conflict of "Venom: The Last Dance." The song was released in 1969, just months after the first moon landing. Its otherworldly, space-age rock sound makes anything feel possible, be it alien invasions, moon landings, or Eddie Brock winning for real.
Eddie and Venom are saddling up for one big final battle — or as final as things get in Sony's Spidey universe. Eddie warns Venom this could be the fight that they don't come out of alive. The same is true for Major Tom, the main character of "Space Oddity." An astronaut who has tasted too much fame drifts out into space while his Ground Control team warns him his signal is dead and something's wrong.
Still, Major Tom bids his wife and world farewell and floats out into the great beyond, for better or worse, intentionally or as a victim of cruel space fate. Major Tom, Eddie Brock ... the allusion suits the seeming finality of this installment. The swan song quality of "Space Oddity" is a perfect fit for a trailer about what could be Eddie and Venom's own last ride and final installment in the trilogy.
Is Knull, the God of Sybmiotes, coming?
"Venom: The Last Dance" plays coy with its main villain, but the trailer shows symbiotes dropping down from Earth as fiery asteroid-like objects crashing on the planet. In a voiceover, Venom references his otherworldly home. While the result of the meteor crashes is likely the outbreak of attacking Xenophages, in the bigger picture, the alien's arrivals may suggest an even darker force at play: Knull, the God of Symbiotes.
Debuting in "Venom" #3 (created by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman), Knull is Marvel's King in Black, a primordial force birthed alongside the creation of the Seventh Cosmos, with the supervillain serving as the creator of symbiotes and the wielder of All-Black the Necrosword — the same weapon used by Gorr the God Butcher. Knull controlled symbiotes across the universe until his connection was eventually severed, as they rebelled against him and trapped him for thousands of years. He is reawakened in the present day, leading to an all-out assault on Earth during the "King in Black" event, sending his army of symbiotes at Earth's Mightiest Heroes, successfully transforming several major characters, such as Cyclops and Doctor Strange, into his pawns. Knull is so powerful that when Sentry, arguably the strongest hero in the Multiverse, tries to kill him, he responds by ripping the Golden Guardian in half. It would take everything Eddie Brock had, including becoming the God of Light with a major cosmic upgrade, to stop him.
Introducing Knull would be a wild development for the third installment of the "Venom" franchise, but Sony has never shied away from deep-cut characters in the past. And considering its the final movie (for now) in the series, bringing Knull into the fold is exactly the kind of crazy swing that could lead to a satisfying and bombastic conclusion.
Eddie Brock looks like James Bond
Eddie Brock can barely keep a bag of tater tots intact when Venom's acting up, not to mention entire apartments, fleets of bad guys, and the unholy union of murderous psychopathic couples. Sweaty hoodies and general laundry-day attire seem to be Eddie's functional fashion choices for living life inhabited by a bloodthirsty alien symbiote, so seeing him all cleaned up in suit and tie is a stunning change of pace — and possibly an egg. Easter egg.
As Eddie walks confidently through Las Vegas in his black-tie get-up, messing with his cufflinks, it is impossible not to see him momentarily as James Bond. While this is a stylish and suave moment, it's hilariously off-brand for Eddie Brock, San Francisco's resident property-damage menace-at-large. But it's a glimpse into what actor Tom Hardy would look like as 007, after years of the Hollywood rumor mill throwing out his name as a possible new contender for the iconic spy character.
Sure, some might think this is just a tantalizing peek at Hardy as Bond. But we think it's also a strong audition for Eddie Brock as Chaos Bond. Think of it as a limited-series Marvel TV show, like "Loki" or "Moon Knight." "Chaos Bond" would follow Eddie Brock and Venom being timewarped back to 1960s London, having to pose as a suave international spy engaging in a delicate espionage mission. Absurd violence and delight would surely ensue, along with a chance for Hardy to speak in his native accent. You're welcome, Hollywood.