Summary
- Holland’s Spider-Man could potentially wear the Venom Symbiote costume in Avengers: Secret Wars, based on fan art, continuing the storyline from Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- It is unclear if Spider-Man 4 will explore the Symbiote storyline from No Way Home or if it will be saved for later.
- It is possible that Phase 6 of the MCU could feature Spider-Man 4 and properly address the Symbiote arc, giving the story more time to grow organically than previous adaptations.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man upgrades to the Venom Symbiote costume in Avengers: Secret Wars fan art, following the major Marvel Cinematic Universe cliffhanger in Spider-Man: No Way Home. As The Multiverse Saga has been moving forward, one of the big MCU movies to have factored into the ongoing storyline is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which completed Holland’s trilogy while also giving him his own live-action Spider-Verse adventure with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of Peter Parker. However, one of the unaddressed plot points in Spider-Man’s MCU timeline is the piece of the Symbiote that was left behind after Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock, a.k.a. Venom, went back to his own universe.
While Holland’s Spider-Man is coming back to the MCU, the web-crawler hasn’t been around since 2021, leaving the Symbiote twist up in the air from Spider-Man: No Way Home. In Avengers: Secret Wars fan art by Hazzaa Jarrar, Holland’s Peter bonds with the Symbiote, showing what he could look like in the Venom suit.
Holland’s Spider-Man would be the second live-action version to get the black suit, following Maguire’s version getting it in 2007’s Spider-Man 3. Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man franchise never got far enough to see him in the black costume, despite the Venom Symbiote being teased in the second movie.
Will Spider-Man 4 Actually Explore No Way Home’s Symbiote Cliffhanger?
While Holland is coming back as Spider-Man, what is unclear is whether or not Spider-Man 4 will be the movie to explore Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Symbiote storyline. Right now, The Multiverse Saga is almost halfway through its run, as Phase 5 got started in 2023, and to this point, Spider-Man has not popped up once. Whether or not that is related to Holland’s contract status is unclear, but at this point, Peter will likely not be back until Phase 6.
If the SAG-AFTRA strike comes to an end before the year is over, it’s very possible that Phase 6 will be able to slot in Holland’s Spider-Man 4 movie, which would be the proper movie to deal with the Symbiote arc. Having Peter suited up with the black Symbiote costume in Avengers: Secret Wars would rob Holland’s franchise of one of Spider-Man’s greatest storylines and also be rushed in a movie that is wrapping up The Multiverse Saga. Spider-Man 4 would also make more sense, given that Peter is now all by himself, meaning the Symbiote would have a better opportunity to take advantage of him.
The bigger surprise would be if the MCU decided not to tackle the Symbiote cliffhanger at all, which would make Hardy’s Venom cameo pointless as he was only around for a few minutes, just to have a piece left behind in Peter’s universe. The other option for the MCU is if Spider-Man 4 takes place in Phase 7 and adapts the Symbiote storyline after The Multiverse Saga. For now, the world will have to wait and see if Holland’s Spider-Man gets his black costume upgrade before or in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Source: Hazzaa Jarrar/Instagram