The first trailer for Venom: The Last Dance suggests the same villain mistake will be repeated, and I can’t believe Sony would repeat this trend for a third time. I was excited about seeing Venom: The Last Dance’s first trailer when it was released on June 3, 2024, especially since the movie, set outside the MCU, appears to be a breath of fresh air for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe after Morbius and Madame Web’s disappointing releases. Although I think Tom Hardy’s third adventure as Eddie Brock’s Venom will be an action-packed and emotional story, the movie’s villains have me worried.

Tom Hardy debuted as investigative journalist Eddie Brock in 2018’s Venom and quickly became the handsome face of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Venom and its 2021 sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, are the most successful SSU movies, clocking in over $1.3 billion at the global box office, and Venom: The Last Dance’s trailer makes me think it’ll follow suit. However, one aspect of the trailer does make me worried, as it seems Sony is repeating a huge mistake from its past Venom installments in the upcoming 2024 sequel.

Venom Has Battled Other Symbiotes In All Of His SSU Movies

It was great to see Venom fighting Riot in Venom, but I was concerned when this was repeated with Venom fighting Carnage in the sequel. Venom: The Last Dance’s trailer has made me think this same final battle will be repeated yet again. We see several symbiote samples in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character’s lab in Venom: The Last Dance’s trailer, and Venom even states that his homeworld has found him and Eddie Brock. While this may set up an epic final battle between Venom and several other symbiotes, this will just repeat plot points from previous Venom movies.

Having said that, I did notice that Venom: The Last Dance’s trailer featured a battle between Venom and what looks like a Xenophage, a species that feeds on symbiotes in Marvel Comics. While this, thankfully, isn’t just another symbiote, the Xenophage has a similar visual design to Venom’s species, meaning the same problems with a typical symbiote vs. symbiote battle will exist. Having Venom fight a Xenophage could put an interesting spin on the Venom franchise’s typical final battles, but I’m worried the same visual issues with having two symbiotes fight each other will still be present.

Why Symbiote Vs. Symbiote Fights Are A Challenge In The Venom Movies

It would have been more impactful for Venom to battle a brand-new, more exciting villain.

The fact that Venom has battled other symbiotes in his previous two adventures and may repeat this again in Venom: The Last Dance has me on edge. This is because symbiote vs. symbiote battles in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe haven’t had the impact that they perhaps should have and have instead been visually messy, complicated to follow, and hard to read. Riot, Carnage, and Venom are all darkly-colored beings with similar power sets, allowing them all to make weapons and other tools from their appendages. Unfortunately, this makes them hard to distinguish and puts them on an even playing field.

What confuses me is that Sony has built its shared Marvel universe using Spider-Man villains as the foundation, so there are plenty of other powerful villains that Venom could face in Venom: The Last Dance. Given that the upcoming movie is Venom’s final adventure in the SSU, it would have been more impactful for Venom to battle a brand-new, more exciting, villain, or perhaps even Peter Parker’s Spider-Man himself. This would avoid the banality of having Venom fight yet another symbiote, making his closing salvo his strongest movie yet.