Venom is one of the biggest antiheroes in the Marvel Universe and Spider-Man’s biggest opponent, part ally. There are more versions of this notable Marvel antihero/villain but Eddie Brock’s version is the most famous one and usually, the one adapted to the other media from original source material. In the comics, Brock is a journalist who wrongly exposes a serial killer, and his reputation gets ruined after Spider-Man finds a true murderer. He becomes depressed and suicidal, however, gets in contact with the powerful alien symbiote, which was previously rejected by Peter Parker.
Eddie Brock or simply Venom became one of the biggest archnemesis to Spider-Man and found himself in a pretty infamous group of villains like Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. All in all, Venom got a lot of adaptations, and in this article, we will go through the movies where Venom is the title character or has a vital cameo appearance, which affects the film’s story tremendously. We present you the list of Venom movies to watch in order. If you are interested, stick with us until the end of the article. We are warning you of spoilers for Venom movies. Let’s start!
How Many Venom Movies Are Out There?
As you can see, there are not that many movies in which Venom appeared, however, in each one, besides the recent Spider-Man movie, Venom is quite an important character. There are few mentions in recent films like Sony’s Morbius, however, he does not appear in it, and that is why we won’t put it on the list.
Venom did get two independent movies with mixed critical reviews – regardless of the criticism, Venom is still quite a watchable franchise, and Tom Hardy does a great job portraying Eddie Brock. Topher Grace’s Venom was introduced in the Spider-Man 3 in 2007, during the Tobey Maguire era, and even though it was planned for Topher Grace to come back and portray Venom as a title character of his own movie, Sony ditched the idea.
Venom Movies in Order (At Glance)
Possibilities are unlimited in Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point in time, and hopefully, we will see these options enabled by both Marvel and Sony who throughout the years confused the fans with their arrangement that changed a lot, especially after Tom Holland’s Spider-Man became so popular.
Now, we can say for sure that Topher Grace’s Venom is part of the MCU in the alternate universe, and if the actor ever expresses a desire to come back and portray Venom once again, there is a possibility of him appearing in the future MCU movies as a part of the Multiverse as we already saw in the Spider-Man: No Way Home. Here is the list of Venom Movies in order
- Spider-Man 3 (2007)
- Venom (2018)
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
What Is the Best Way To Watch Venom Movies?
You can watch the movies by the release date or chronologically – both of the options are not necessarily exclusive. New Venom is connected to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Venom’s appearances and cameos in the movies will be quite important in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When it comes to Spider-Man 3, you can watch it first, because it was released in 2007, therefore, in a different Spider-Man Universe.
Venom Movies In Order By Release Date
1. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Spider-Man 3 was released in 2007, and it was the third installment of the Spider-Man franchise during the Tobey Maguire era. It was directed by Sam Raimi, who we know from work on the Multiverse of Madness, and was a direct continuation of Spider-Man 2, which was really successful at the time. Spider-Man 3 was the first real live-action movie that included Venom, and its cameo was supposed to be a foundation for this Spider-Man iconic character to appear in more Marvel projects.
However, problems with licensing and plans for Venom to appear in the Amazing Spider-Man franchise (Andrew Garfield era) were scratched off and Venom did not appear again until the late 2010s.
While waiting for Sandman to appear once again, Peter’s Spider-Man suit is corrupted by the symbiote which enhances his powers but brings out his dark personality, which will cause a lot of problems for him and the ones he loves.
The Spider-Man 3 version of Eddie Brock and Venom was portrayed by Topher Grace, and his character does not appear as Venom until the last point of the movie. This Venom is the antagonist of the story and his villainous journey in the movie starts when corrupted by the symbiote Peter Parker finds out that Eddie Brock, his rival, is faking his photos to paint a bad picture about Spider-Man. J. Jonah Jamison does not like that so he promotes Peter Parker and fires Eddie Brock from Daily Bugle.
After a few incidents that were propelled by the symbiote, Peter realizes that the particle is affecting him badly and gets rid of it. However, what he does not know is that the symbiote gets attached to Eddie Brock, who seeks revenge against Peter Parker for getting him fired. As Venom, Brock kidnaps Mary Jane and convinces Sandman to join forces and kill Spider-Man. After Sandman keeps the police at bay, Venom and Spider-Man fight who almost gets impaled by Green Goblin’s glider, however, Harry Osborne saves Peter’s life.
Ultimately, Venom is defeated by Spider-Man by creating a very powerfully sonic attack with metal pipes. Venom is finished by a pumpkin bomb from Green Goblin and gets vaporized.
Even though it seemed that the symbiote was destroyed with Eddie Brock, a small particle survived the attack. This was supposed to hint at the future standalone Venom movie that was being developed by Sony, however, it was scrapped pretty quickly by Sony after licensing problems with the Spider-Man franchise. All in all, this is the first appearance of the Venom in live-action.
2. Venom (2018)
Venom movie from 2018 was the start of the new shared universe, developed by Sony, which was supposed to serve as a “bridge” between Marvel and Sony. Spider-Man is still a property of Sony, and propelled by the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony realized the potential of having rights to the most popular Spider-Man antihero/villain.
After confirming the shared universe concept with MCU, Sony once again scrapped future connections with the Spider-Man universe, which confused fans once more. All in all, Tom Hardy took on the character of Eddie Brock this time and did a really good job. The cast was rounded off by great actors like Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, Scott Haze, and more.
Venom movie center of the story is struggling journalist Eddie Brock, who becomes a host of an alien symbiote that imbues him with super-human abilities. The relationship between Brock and the symbiote is really interesting and reminds us of Jekyll and Hyde or some kind of hybrid type of relationship, where two beings are working together to accomplish an ultimate goal.
Venom movie serves as an origin story of Venom and how Eddie Brock uses his newly discovered powers to seek revenge on Carlton Drake, the CEO of Life Foundation Company, who uses real people to research the assimilation between the symbiote and the human host. The company is conducting the research unethically by forcefully attaching the symbiote onto a human host and if rejected, the host dies.
After the events of the movie where Venom and Brock actually bonded to achieve the ultimate goal – they stay together after the Life Foundation and their mercenaries like Riot are killed in the explosion. The pair is shown to kill the criminals to protect the city of San Francisco while Brock goes back to his journalism job. In this movie, Carnage is introduced as the villain of the next movie.
3. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
The sequel of 2018’s Venom, Let There Be Carnage is a direct continuation of its predecessor, and introduces Venom’s archenemy from the comics, Carnage. This movie was praised as better than the first installment but still criticized for the story, and CGI while dividing critics for its short runtime and humor. However, Harrelson’s and Hardy’s performances were the main staple of the movie, and Sony’s shared universe came “online” after a cameo of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jamison occurred at the end of the movie.
The story of the movie follows Eddie Brock interviewing serial killer Kasady, whose victims were discovered by Venom, which propelled Brock’s journalism career. After the scuffle, Kasady obtains the particle of the Venom’s symbiote and develops a red-colored Carnage. Meanwhile, Venom and Brock have a huge fight, and Venom promptly leaves Brock.
In true rom-com fashion, they get back together and defeat Carnage and his lover Frances Barrison/Shriek. At the end of the movie, Brock and Venom are fugitives and are shown watching Peter Parker being revealed to the world as Spider-Man, which confirms that these two characters are in the same universe.
Let There Be Carnage is an entertaining movie that set the premise of Venom appearing in the future Spider-Man movie or Spider-Man appearing in future Venom projects. It already happened with Venom, so let’s talk about it.
4. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
As usual with the MCU movies, the surprising mid-credits scene is always leaked before the movie comes out but it did not stop the fans to be hyped about this one. Tom Hardy’s Venom cameo was a huge highlight of the No Way Home movie, and even though other cameos were really important and cool, Eddie Brock’s appearance was really something a lot of fans remembered.
Where to Watch Venom Movies?
You can watch the first Venom movie on Netflix, while the other Venom: Let There Be Carnage is currently available on HBO Max. Spider-Man 3 is available on Disney+.
Are Venom Movies Connected?
This appearance of Holland’s Spider-Man in Let There Be Carnage and Hardy’s cameo in the mid-credits scene in No Way Home only strengthened and confirmed that Sony Shared Universe character, transported to the MCU. This is a huge development and fans got excited with future potential crossovers and Venom “finally” coming home to Marvel, in some way.
Will There Be More Venom Movies?
The third Venom movie is in development and we do not doubt that Spider-Man’s archenemy will have something exciting to offer us. Until then, we will watch out for more Venom cameos in the MCU or Spider-Man’s appearance in the future Sony projects, which were hinted at for the Morbius movie, but we never got it. Hopefully, that changes in the future.
