Tom Hardy provides update on rumored ‘Venom’ and ‘Spider-Man’ crossover and the target audience he has in mind

As the rumor mill continues to churn out speculation about a long-awaited Venom and Spider-Man crossover, Tom Hardy has come through with an official update. 

Before you get your painties (or web-slingers) in a twist, I regret to inform you that it isn’t particularly promising news. Hardy, who portrayed Eddie Brock/Venom in Sony’s trilogy of the loveable anti-hero, addressed all the rumors of a potential onscreen collaboration with Peter Parker in a recent interview on The Discourse Podcast. 

Tom Hardy says a Spider-Man and Venom crossover film ‘got close’ to happening, but studio politics prevented it

“I would have loved to have done [it] because that just means so much fun”

(via Discourse Pod) pic.twitter.com/hHKeD8jGo6

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) March 31, 2025

Since Spider-Man and Venom exist in the same universe — with the latter character even appearing in Tobey Maguire’s iteration of Spider-Man — the speculation of some form of crossover was well-placed. However, Hardy isn’t so sure it’ll ever come to fruition. “We got close,” Hardy said about a crossover with the Tom Holland version of Spider-Man. “We got as close as I could possibly imagine getting, apart from doing a film together.”

Later on, The Discourse Podcast host Mike DeAngelo asked whether “studio politics” had anything to do with the crossover being killed, and his response certainly pointed towards the affirmative. “[The project] never happened for all the reasons that you explained ultimately in there.” The actor didn’t elaborate on exactly what that meant, but he did express excitement at the idea of a crossover “for the kids,” who are the target market he had in mind for the hypothetical film. 

Tom Hardy confirms ‘Spider-Man & Venom’ is dead.

Studio politics got in the way, and that bridge was ultimately burned. He doesn’t mention if the crossover was going to happen in Spider-Man 4 like originally reported. pic.twitter.com/0BQmDl0vdY

— Hernandy D. Morales (@hernandy_s) March 31, 2025

“Fundamentally, for me, it would be for the kids,” Hardy said of why he wanted to do a Venom-Spider-Man project. “Because, you know, as much as adults love superhero films, as you can tell by the box office when they’re successful, I think I’m constantly reminded by children how important these characters are.” That, for Hardy, would be the main justification for a crossover, since children viewers “don’t know why their favorite characters aren’t in films together.” 

News of the nixed Venom and Spider-Man project flies in the face of earlier promises made by those involved in the project. In 2019, Ruben Fleischer, who directed the first installment of the Venom franchise, confirmed to Fandom that the plan was always to build Hardy’s comic book franchise into a meeting with Holland’s Spider-Man. “That’s where it’s all going to lead,” Fleischer said at the time. He went on to reveal that the change in the origin story for the character of Venom “because of the Marvel-Sony thing” allowed him to envision a scenario in which Spider-Man and Venom “actually do confront each other.”

Seems like what Fleischer was hinting at in regards to Marvel and Sony’s dual ownership of Spider-Man might be the “studio politics” that Hardy mentioned. While we won’t see Venom in it, the upcoming installment of Holland’s Spider-Man franchise is very much moving along. Today, the name for the film — the fourth entry into the franchise — was revealed as Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with a release date slated for July 31, 2026. Who knows, maybe by then Hardy will figure out a way to web-sling his way into Holland’s franchise, and we’d certainly be here for that!