Tom Hardy’s Venom is not a part of the MCU, says Joe Russo.
Joe Russo, one of the directors of currently running Marvel superhero extravaganza Avengers: Infinity War, has confirmed that Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff Venom is not a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel had made a deal with Sony to include Spider-Man in MCU. This was how Tom Holland’s web-slinger could appear in Captain America: Civil War, his own standalone movie Spider-Man: Homecoming, and now Avengers: Infinity War – movies that are a property of Marvel Studios and its parent company Disney.
Sony soon announced a spinoff movie based on Spider-Man’s enemy/sometimes friend villain/anti-hero Venom with Tom Hardy in the lead after Tom Holland’s Spider-Man received widespread praise. But many wondered whether it would come under the umbrella of MCU since Sony would surely want to connect Hardy’s Venom with Holland’s Spider-Man some day. It can be argued that there should not be a Venom movie without Spider-Man since the very existence of the character depends upon Spidey. So does the deal extend till Spider-Man universe characters too? It turns out it does not, as Joe Russo made it clear while speaking to school students at Iowa City High. Sony had said they were building their own universe and it appears like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will be shared by both the MCU and Sony’s burgeoning universe.
The trailer of Venom and the look of the character has been received with enthusiasm by the fans but it is not clear what Sony plans next. When every studio is scrambling to build their own superhero cinematic universe, Sony has much less material to work with – it has only Spider-Man and his family of characters. Warner Bros has the entire DC library, Disney has everything Marvel except X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man. And with the Disney-Fox deal, it seems the only Marvel property they will not have is Spider-Man, which Sony still owns.