It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we would be seeing Tom Hardy reprising his role of Eddie Brock/Venom again in the not so distant future, and Spider-Man: No Way Home producer Amy Pascal has confirmed that work is already underway on Venom 3. While it would seem that the film is only in the early stages of development, it is likely that Venom’s next outing will be something of a collaborative effort in light of the post-credit reveal that Venom is now part of the MCU, allowing interaction with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, as well as Marvel villains such as the Vulture and Morbius who were questionably in the same universe. For now, though, it looks like there is the small matter of a little film coming out in a just over a week that must be dealt with first.

Speaking in an interview with Collider, Pascal explained, “We are in the planning stages right now but what we are focused on is getting everybody to come and see No Way Home.”

Of course, this is only natural as all focus has been on the third solo Spider-Man movie of the MCU, and although we now are certain to see Tom Holland suiting up again in future, there are many questions about which universe in which that will take place and whether the expected face off with Venom is coming sooner rather than later. While Venom: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis has been vocal in saying that the pair will meet somewhere down the line, the post-credit reveal of the Venom sequel caused a great deal of speculation over whether that was true or just a deflection.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Tom Hardy previously addressed the idea of doing a third film and how much it all depended on the success of the current one. Hardy explained:

"These things [usually] come in threes. If there's going to be a new one – and they depend heavily on the success of each individual one, so you can't count on them ever happening again – everyone has got to be as if it was the last one. But I think it's really important, if you go into something, thinking that one, two and three are the same... the same story, the same film. So that you don't surprise yourself by being caught out by suddenly having to do a third from nowhere. There's got to be some continuity into a third and fourth and fifth, and if somebody says 'no', that's fine. Let it go, and you move on to something else."

While talking to ComicBook.com, Serkis had a similar stance and at the time hinted that a new film was already being planned. He commented, "I mean, I think there's so much potential in the Venom-verse for really interesting journeys before the kind of the inevitable happens... I think Kelly and Tom have been thinking about what is the next stage of the journey anyway. They would have thought of... They would have had some plans for where they could possibly go after this... You've got to. When you're going into a franchise, you've got to think about the arc, of course. You can't think about them just individually."

Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in cinemas next week, while Venom: Let There Be Carnage is still playing in a small number of theaters and available to purchase on demand services.