Venom: The Last Dance Trailer Breakdown: A Leaked Plot Reportedly Has Venom Protecting a 10 Year Old Peter Parker

The first trailer for Venom: The Last Dance arrived with plenty of Spider-Man Easter eggs to dig through, and there is a lot to unpack once you factor in a plot leak that had already surfaced before the footage dropped.

A plot leak on the movie had reportedly circulated the week before this trailer landed, said to come from a film survey handed out at a screening that asked attendees how excited they were for certain elements of the story. I am going through those leaked details here because I think they give a lot of context to what the movie is actually about, though they do not spoil things like the deaths, the ending, or whether Madame Web finally says the name Peter Parker.

Because this is still Sony's Spider-Man universe rather than the MCU, even these leaked details could end up changing before release, the same way the poster in the Morbius trailer ended up being changed.

Picking Up From Venom's MCU Cameo and a New Sony Peter Parker

At the end of Let There Be Carnage, Venom tapped into the hive mind that symbiotes share and became aware that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. That awareness pulled him into the MCU while Doctor Strange was casting his memory spell. Once there, Eddie ended up sitting at a bar in a hotel talking to the bartender about stones and how aliens do not like them, rather than getting any real interaction with Spider-Man.

"Great use of the character, guys. Glad we waited for years to see Peter Parker and Venom fighting each other," is how I put it. Instead, we are going to be getting a new Sony Peter Parker, so as I said, don't worry kids, we've got Peter Parker at home.

The Leaked Premise: Venom Reportedly Protects a Young Peter Parker

The new trailer shows Venom back home, and according to the leak this movie will actually be about Venom protecting a young Peter Parker, though that is not really shown in the trailer itself. It has been rumored for a while. It looks in the footage like it is all about fighting a symbiote creature similar to the one that appeared in Old Man Logan, but the leak said that is not the case.

Instead, the leak describes the story as being about Eddie trying to stop the people hunting him while also finding a young Peter Parker.

This Sounds Like the Madame Web Ending That Got Cut

That premise sounds familiar because it was originally the plot for Madame Web. The original plan had Ezekiel Sims learning that Mary Parker was carrying his future nemesis and trying to kill him before he was born, leading into a Terminator style plot where Madame Web and her group had to protect Mary. That finale was set to happen in the film's final act, with everything before it staying relatively the same. As we know, that finale was not in the final release.

There is a possibility that this insider information was simply wrong. However, it is known that all connections to Spider-Man were removed from Madame Web, and Dakota Johnson has said the movie changed drastically while it was being made. I wonder if that change happened because of the direction this script for The Last Dance ended up taking.

A 10 Year Old Peter Parker and a Kidnapping Plot I Have Doubts About

The leaked script reportedly has Venom and Eddie discovering that Peter is just a 10 year old boy in this universe, but they still want to kidnap and kill him. "Is this a Marvel movie, mate? Are you sure?" is honestly my reaction to that. I have obviously wanted Spider-Man and this version of Venom to meet onscreen for a long time, and this is the third film, the last dance, but as I put it, "I don't know, 10 year old kid, it just ain't doing it for me."

My guess is that the proper Venom versus Spider-Man showdown is being saved for the MCU, since the symbiote was left behind at the end of No Way Home. There is a shot later in the trailer that kind of complicates that idea, and I do suspect Sony might just be putting it in the trailer to get people interested, and that it might not even be in the finished film. At this point, it is not clear either way.

A Spider Bite, a Hospital Visit and Venom's Reluctant Mentor Turn

Per the leak, just before Eddie is supposed to go through with killing him, he starts having second thoughts. Peter is then supposed to be exposed to spiders, which gives him an allergic reaction. I do not know for certain if this is how he ends up getting his powers, but I can imagine that being the case. Eddie then has to take him to a hospital, where he pretends to be his father.

Whereas Ezekiel Sims was steadfast in trying to kill the young Spider-Man in the Madame Web version of this story, Eddie instead realizes he can be a mentor figure to Peter. That leans into the lethal protector idea that Venom already touched on in the last film, and it will be interesting to see whether the movie follows through on that.

Stephen Graham's Toxin and the New Symbiotes He Creates to Fight Monsters

Venom is apparently unhappy about being stuck babysitting, and the pair go through their usual odd couple routine, which is honestly probably the best part of these films, with Tom Hardy really getting to ham it up. But every movie needs a villain, and here it comes in the form of Stephen Graham, who played Detective Patrick Mulligan in the last film. Mulligan was infected by an offshoot of Carnage known as Toxin, a character who first appeared in Venom versus Carnage issue one back in 2004.

In the comics, Toxin appeared as a black speck on Mulligan's neck before eventually taking over. He is part of what is known as the Thousand, a symbiote lineage that carries all the powers and memories of the symbiotes that came before it, making Toxin extremely powerful and more than capable of standing against Venom. Because Mulligan, the host, is a police officer, Toxin is not necessarily a bad guy in the comics, carrying a certain sense of honor and even working alongside Spider-Man at times, in contrast to Carnage being attached to a serial killer. It shows how the host's personality affects the symbiote, and while Venom had a long arc from villain to antihero, Toxin was more of an antihero from the start.

That is the direction the movie appears to be taking with him, a bad guy for the right reasons. According to the leak, Toxin's goal is to destroy all monsters, Venom included, but he also apparently wants to destroy Peter, since he sees Spider-Man as a monster too. In order to destroy monsters, he apparently needs to make more monsters, which is why he ends up spawning new symbiotes.

Juno Temple's Patricia Robertson Brings Scream Into the Story

One of those new symbiotes merges with Patricia Robertson, played by Juno Temple, who will be a love interest for Eddie in the film. Patricia is known as Scream in the comics, a mainstay symbiote character. Anyone who played the recent Spider-Man 2 PS5 game will know the character appeared there as a boss, taking over someone that will not be spoiled here, but this film is giving us a version closer to the comics.

Patricia was a communication specialist in the army working at a radar station in Canada. She came across a lab filled with corpses, where it was revealed a Venom clone had been studied. The clone escaped, killed the scientists, and stowed away on her, bonding with Patricia before the pair traveled to New York to kill Venom. Her powers are built around a powerful scream similar to Shriek's, along with hair she can use as a whip.

Since Michelle Williams' character is off doing her own thing now, it makes sense to bring in a new love interest for the third film, one who is more on Eddie's level. It reminds me a bit of Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, before The Dark Knight Rises brought in Catwoman as someone more on Bruce's level.

The Life Foundation Rumor and a General's Revenge Through The Jury

There are rumors that the film is doing a version of the Life Foundation, which would bring several villain symbiotes into the story. Beyond Toxin and Scream, there is also reportedly a group known as the Jury, a team of vigilantes from the comics who all have their own grudge against symbiotes, led by a character named Orell Taylor, played by an actor cast in the role according to the leak.

In the comics, Orell worked at a superhuman prison known as the Vault as a high ranking general. His son Hugh followed him into the army and worked at the Vault too, before being killed by Venom. Orell swore revenge and formed the Jury, made up of his former army buddies, acting as judge, jury and executioner. The leaks say the film version of the Jury will apparently get something similar, but with a twist: the son was reportedly killed by Carnage during his prison escape in the second film. That leaves Eddie having to keep Peter alive while dealing with threats coming from both Toxin and the Jury at once. I can honestly see it from both sides, and Eddie is going to need to stay vigilant.

A Confusing No Way Home Callback and a Mystery Cameo

The other things worth talking about are the multiversal elements at play in the trailer. We see the bar that appeared in No Way Home, with the same bartender, though he looks disheveled. I am genuinely wondering whether this is meant to be the MCU, because if it is, that raises questions about everything Doctor Strange's spell was supposed to have fixed. I do not know how this works in a narrative sense.

It is possible this shows another version of the bar that Venom was transported to. It could also suggest people now have government technology to travel between universes, or it could just be Sony ignoring everything the MCU already set up. Either this Venom can reach the mainline MCU universe and move between multiverses, or this is the bar in Eddie's own universe, a variant of the one from No Way Home, which would explain why the bartender's hair is longer, though that detail might just be there to show the passage of time. I do wonder if this ties into the Peter Parker leaks, or if it is something completely separate from the trailer.

There is also a split second shot of Rhys Ifans as a hippie, the actor who played the Lizard across The Amazing Spider-Man films. I genuinely do not know if that is meant to be the Lizard, just a hippie, or a hint at another universe entirely. I do not feel like Sony cares much about continuity here, and it is all over the place. I look forward to seeing how it eventually gets pieced together.

Do you think the bar callback ties into the Peter Parker leaks, or is it something completely separate from the rest of the trailer?