Although Venom and Spider-Man share a unique bond in the realm of comics, the characters occupy very different universes on the big-screen, at least for now. When Disney and Sony agreed to share the character of Spider-Man, Marvel Studios brought Spidey to life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Sony kick-started their own Marvel Universe populated by various Spider-Man characters. The first film out of the gate was VENOM, but as Sony couldn't use Spider-Man at the time, Venom's origins were changed.
Now that Disney and Sony have put their latest disagreement over the web-slinger behind them, Spider-Man will continue to appear in the MCU, but the door is also open for Spidey to swing into Sony's MCU as well. "Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe," said Marvel's Kevin Feige in a statement. "He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold." While speaking with Fandom, VENOM director Ruben Fleischer said that a Venom/Spider-Man crossover is what everything is leading towards.
That’s where it’s all going to lead. And that’s the exciting thing, because we changed the origin of Venom … in the comics, he evolved from Spider-Man but because of the Marvel-Sony thing we weren’t able to that. And so the thing I think it’s building towards, and will be exciting to see, is when they actually do confront each other.
However, don't expect Ruben Fleischer to handle Spider-Man's introduction to Venom as he's handed the reins of the sequel over to Andy Serkis. "I was kinda happy to let somebody else take over. And I’m excited to see what he does with it," Fleischer said. Although VENOM certainly impressed at the box-office, it didn't exactly receive rave reviews from critics, which Fleischer admits surprised him. "I was really bummed that people didn’t like it because it’s a crowdpleasing movie and I’m not sure if there was just blowback against Sony or people just worship Marvel," Fleischer stated. "But I was really surprised that the critics [were gunning for it] because audiences really enjoyed the movie. And so many people who’ve seen it just appreciated that it was a fun superhero movie. So I was a little surprised. I don’t know what they were expecting."
Tom Hardy is naturally set to return as Eddie Brock/Venom, and it's expected that Michelle Williams will be back as well, as will Woody Harrelson, who played Cletus Kasady, the man who will become Carnage, in a post-credit sequence in the first film. VENOM 2 director Andy Serkis has said that he's already "got some very clear ideas about the journey I’d like to see visually and how we can take the characters into another dimension." VENOM 2 is expected to hit theaters on October 2, 2020.