Yesterday, an eagle-eyed Reddit user spotted something very interesting in a recent TV spot for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Life. One seemingly random throwaway shot, featuring a number of New York City citizens looking up at something in the sky, was seemingly lifted from a shot that was originally filmed for Sony's 2007 superhero sequel Spider-Man 3, during a scene where Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man saves Bryce Dallas Howard's Gwen Stacy from being crushed by a crumbling building. While it's likely just a case of the studio using a random shot from their library to save money, this shot has also spawned a crazy fan theory that Life may actually be a prequel to the long discussed Venom spin-off.

This theory first surfaced on Reddit, claiming that Life could actually be a backdoor origin story for how the alien symbiote Venom come to Earth in the first place. Venom is actually featured in Spider-Man 3, consuming Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) after taking over Peter Parker as his host. Then again, the Spider-Man franchise has been rebooted twice since then, and while that logic may be far-fetched, to say the least, it wouldn't be the first time that we've heard of a seemingly-unrelated movie being connected to a beloved franchise. Be warned there will be SPOILERS below for the hit movie Split below, so read on at your own risk.

Many fans were quite shocked when it was revealed at the end of Split that the movie is actually set in the world of Unbreakable, with a brief cameo from Bruce Willis as David Dunn at the end of the film, setting up another movie that combines characters from Split and Unbreakable. Paramount has also surprised fans in the past by revealing that a small-budget indie previously known as The Cellar would be re-titled 10 Cloverfield Lane, which connects to the Cloverfield universe, as does the upcoming God Particle. Just last fall, Lionsgate unveiled that a horror-thriller entitled The Woods was actually entitled Blair Witch. Even with all of these recent examples, it seems unlikely that the alien featured in the Life movie has any connection to the new Spider-Man franchise, which kicks off with Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 7.

With all of that being said, we did report last year that a new Venom movie is moving forward, with Sony Pictures hiring Dante Harper (You Got Served) to write the script. However, that project will reportedly not be connected in any way to Sony and Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming, with the studio planning on launching their own stand-alone franchise around this character. It isn't clear at this time if Marvel will be involved in this project as well, but since it won't be connected to the Spider-Man: Homecoming franchise, it seems unlikely Marvel will have any involvement, though a full reveal of the alien in recent trailers does hold quite a resemblance to the black goo Symbiote seen in the Spider-Man comics.

Before Marvel and Sony inked their deal to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony was developing two Spider-Man spin-offs, The Sinister Six, which was teased at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Venom. There has been talk that the studio is still developing The Sinister Six as well, but if Venom isn't connected to Spider-Man: Homecoming, then it's possible The Sinister Six won't be connected either. Sony has also handed out a July 5, 2019 release date for Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, which will be the second leg of a proposed trilogy, with each movie representing one year of his high school career.