Venom: The Last Dance left Marvel fans in a curious place. Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock reached a definitive ending to his arc, after (SPOILERS) being separated from the Venom symbiote in the climatic battle against the bestial forces of the symbiote god, Knull. However, a post-credits scene for Venom 3 teased that the Venom symbiote had survived that battle, and was currently bonded to a cockroach in the destroyed remains of Area 51. The implication was pretty clear: the Venom movie franchise could continue, with or without Tom Hardy.
When we broke down the ideas for Venom 4 without Tom Hardy, the most popular theory was having the Venom symbiote move on to one of its more recent fan-favorite hosts: Flash Thompson, the Spider-Man jock-turned-combat-soldier who becomes the government-sponsored “Agent Venom.” Now, a new rumor is suggesting that Agent Venom will be exactly what we get in Venom 4!
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Is Venom 4 An Agent Venom Movie?
Marvel scooper @DanielRPK recently reported that Agent Venom is in development at Sony Pictures. Despite some additional rumors being propagated by other sources, the only credible rumor to report right now is that Agent Venom seems to be the direction Sony wants to go in next.
In the comics, “Agent Venom,” is a version of the Venom symbiote worn by Peter Parker’s old high school bully Flash Thompson. Thompson left school and joined the military, serving in the Middle East conflict. Thompson was gravely wounded in combat and ultimately had to have his legs amputated. The former athlete was on a downward spiral until he got recruited into “Project Rebirth,” a government program that bonded him with the Venom symbiote but also fitted him with a tight leash, with rules including controlling when and where he got to use the symbiote, and time limits on how long he wears it (to prevent full bonding).
Flash Thompson’s combat prowess and Venom’s symbiote powers quickly makes “Agent Venom” the ultimate covert operative. In the character’s larger arc, Thompson and Venom eventually bond and break loose of government shackles to operate as a full-fledged hero. He eventually evolved into “Agent Anti-Venom,” with the symbiote-fighting abilities that came along with it.
The most credible thing about this rumor is the logic of the business behind it: Sony retooling the Venom movies from a buddy-comedy series into a superhero action-espionage film is a very smart bet at the box office. The only questions after that are who would be the new lead actor to cast as Flash Thompson, and whether or not Tom Hardy would return to voice the Venom symbiote again.
After two weekends in theaters, Venom: The Last Dance has made $317 million worldwide on a budget of $120 million. It’s on pace to at least equal the box office run of Venom: Let There Be Carnage in 2021 ($506M), but is likely going to be well short of the original Venom’s haul of $856M back in 2018. Still, Venom 3 has done well enough already for Sony to justify keeping their strongest franchise in Sony’s struggling Spider-Man Universe going.
Venom: The Last Dance is now in theaters.