Venom 2 may feature a cameo appearance from Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. That is, if you want to read a little too much into a now-deleted social media post from star Tom Hardy which features the symbiote taking a bite out of the webhead.

Taking to Instagram, Hardy posted artwork showing Venom snacking on Spidey, with the actor quickly scrubbing it from his profile entirely. Luckily, internet sleuths managed to capture the moment, including ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis.

RIP Peter Parker? pic.twitter.com/dlLj2n6MzTApril 21, 2020

So, what gives? File this one potentially under a fun but fanciful way to drum up hype for Venom 2. Hardy has previously done this sort of thing, posing in a Spider-Man costume for his Instagram followers before rapidly hitting that delete button (via Reddit). The man knows how to sell a movie, I’ll give him that.

But it’s not entirely out of the realms of possibility. A rumour surfaced last year involving Tom Holland allegedly appearing in Venom but the scene was left on the cutting room floor. Venom director Ruben Fleischer even said a Spider-Man x Venom crossover is “where it’s all going to lead.”

While a new hero isn’t guaranteed to be cropping up in Venom 2, the Sony sequel does now have a new name, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, as well as a fresh release date of June 25, 2021, a delay of around eight months from its original October 2, 2020 slot. You’d expect Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kassidy to have a major impact – if only Venom had some backup…

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