Sony's designs for a comic book franchise of their own were all over Venom, but the film may have done a decent enough job of justifying them - or at least a few.
Obviously no one wants to see a Morbius film with Jared Leto in the lead, and the likes of Kraven should obviously be in the MCU alongside Spider-Man, but there is an argument to be made that Sony should have its own corner of the mythos. The door has been left open for more tangible connections to be made between Sony's new mythos and that of Disney's, and Venom - despite its shortcomings - deserves a seat at the table.
One need only look at the mythology built up around the character in the comics to justify exploring this world further - which has the potential to be another Guardians of the Galaxy, done correctly - but the film also includes its own sequel-baity threads too in a post-credits sequence. It's not crying out to be mined further, but were Sony to continue making Venom films, there's a strong argument to be made that the only way is up.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
