Venom Let There Be Carnage: Breaking Down That Post-Credits Scene and What It Meant for the MCU

The post-credits scene in Venom: Let There Be Carnage is one of the biggest stingers a Marvel movie has ever had. It does not just tease a showdown between Venom and Spider-Man, it hints at how other franchises get pulled into the MCU. Information about the scene had already been floating around online for about two weeks before release. A fan screening had been held in London earlier in the month, and even though Tom Hardy asked people not to spoil it, the details leaked anyway.

The scene picks up with Eddie in a hotel room watching a Spanish novela at night. After battling Carnage, Eddie has taken a different stance on Venom and is now fully embracing his role as the lethal protector. Venom has always been something of an anti-hero, and it seems like no matter the universe, he is always going to have his dark side. The pair seem to be better than they have ever been, and Venom asks Eddie if he wants to see a fraction of what his species has done.

Little is known about the symbiote still, and this seems like something that will be fun for the character, or at least fun in the sense that it is enough to break the multiverse. The room completely transforms around them. It switches from night to day, and Eddie arrives in a completely different universe. Everything is a slight alteration of the room he had just been in, but things have clearly changed.

J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson reveals Venom has landed in the MCU

We hear the voice of J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson delivering a report on an online news channel, which in this universe plays more like an InfoWars style outlet rather than the newspaper it was in the Venomverse. J. Jonah announces that Peter Parker has killed Mysterio, and it is then that we realize Venom is now in the MCU. This mirrors the news report shown at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, though there is additional footage this time, including video of Spidey with his mask off standing in what appears to be New York, based on the yellow caps visible around him.

J. Jonah also calls Spider-Man the spider-menace and talks about his web of lies. Venom, watching all this, licks the screen, making it clear he wants to eat Spider-Man.

The scene ends with the actual occupant of the hotel room walking out and asking who Eddie is and how he got there. By this point Venom has turned back into Eddie, who says he does not know. Venom denies doing anything, so it is possible he was either brought across by another character, potentially Madame Web, or that Venom does not know the true extent of his own abilities. Eddie's universe was not filled with superheroes, so it will be jarring for him to be dropped into one that is.

What this means for Sony's characters crossing into the MCU

This is clearly something big for the MCU. It cements that characters can now cross between universes, and it hints at how Marvel Studios might eventually bring in characters like the X-Men. When Disney bought Fox, it gained the rights to use those characters, but outside of a brief joke, nothing had really been done with them yet.

During the Morbius trailer, the living vampire was seen walking in front of an image of Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, so it was unclear at the time whether he was in the MCU. He did meet Michael Keaton's Vulture at the end of that first look, though, so it seemed likely Morbius would eventually cross into the MCU, and this Venom scene would be a good way to set that kind of crossover up.

How this compares to Spider-Man and Venom's history in the comics

In the comics, Spider-Man first encountered the symbiote during Secret Wars. After traveling to an alien planet, he bonded with the creature, forming his black suit. Back on Earth, the symbiote changed his personality and made him more aggressive. Peter eventually freed himself from its control, and it went on to bond with Eddie Brock before later infecting Cletus Kasady during a prison break, turning him into Carnage.

When Infinity War trailers first showed Tom Holland's Spider-Man in space, that felt like the moment he might encounter the symbiote and bring it to Earth. That did not happen, and at the time Marvel Studios was very much distancing itself from Sony outside of using Spider-Man himself. When it looked like Sony might take back full control of the character, the two studios reached an agreement allowing Sony-owned characters to interact with Marvel Studios' own. That deal benefits Sony financially, since the MCU is essentially must-watch, and audiences are going to want to see crossover films regardless.

This is why the classic Spider-Man and Venom rivalry from the comics did not play out the same way on screen. The rights situation forced Sony to build its own separate universe, which is now being folded into the MCU. Because this is a post-credits stinger, the movie does not have to explain exactly what happened. I get the feeling Sony just did the scene and figured the explanation could come later, similar to how Stryker's eyes glowed yellow at the end of Days of Future Past for reasons that still make no sense.

Working out the timeline: Loki, the multiverse, and where this leaves Venom 3

It is difficult to know exactly when this scene happens on the MCU timeline, but judging by the news report, it happens before Peter and Doctor Strange cast their spell. That spell is what breaks the multiverse wide open in the trailers and allows characters like Doctor Octopus to cross into the MCU. Since this scene appears to happen before that, it is possible it was instead caused by the events of Loki, which had already allowed reality to bend and shift apart.

The sheer magnitude of Venom showing Eddie things he has done might be enough to shift not just his consciousness but his physical body into another reality. According to theoretical science, if the multiverse exists, other universes sit on different vibrational frequencies that we cannot normally perceive or interact with. Venom attempting to show Eddie his species' history could have altered the way Eddie perceives reality enough to send him into a brand new one.

At the time, it was still unsure whether Venom would appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home. According to Super Duper Scooper Daniel RPK, the plan at that point was reportedly that the character would not actually meet Spider-Man until Venom 3. The reasoning was that Venom had landed in an unknown country in an unknown universe, and without a passport or any contacts there, he would have a hard time making his way to New York in time. My own sense heading into No Way Home was that the film would center on Spidey fighting the Sinister Six, with Venom possibly only showing up in a post-credits scene.

Looking ahead, it seemed possible that some of the symbiote could end up interacting with Peter and creating his black suit. Eddie could return home while Venom stayed behind in the MCU, potentially setting up a rivalry with Peter, or bonding with the MCU's own Eddie, or shifting between universes altogether. My own guess at the time was that Venom would stay in the MCU and possibly even take on the Agent Venom mantle from the comics, with a future film seeing him clash with Spider-Man before realizing Peter is not the murderer the news reports made him out to be. It was also unclear whether the memory spell from No Way Home would affect Venom at all, since he is not from that universe, though if he landed there before the spell was cast he might end up forgetting everything just like everyone else. Madame Web was floated as another possible explanation, in case she was the one who pulled Eddie and Venom across once they reached a certain level of symbiosis.

What is your theory on how Venom ends up crossing paths with Spider-Man?