Ever since Sony announced their Tom Hardy-starring Venom movie, fans have been wondering what (if any) connection it would have to Spider-Man. While I suppose a completely disconnected film might work, the foundation of Venom’s character is his hatred for the webslinger – stemming from Peter Parker’s rejection of the symbiote after he realized it was trying to permanently bond with his body. Though both Sony and Marvel have denied any chance of Spidey swinging by for a cameo, a source is now saying that “he knows” Tom Holland is going to appear in Venom.

Said source is writer/director Jon Schnepp, who’s directed Metalocalypse, The Venture Bros and the feature-length documentary about the aborted 1990s Tim Burton Superman project, The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? His opinion on this comes via Collider Video Head of Development Kristian Harloff, who today Tweeted the following:

Damn @JonSchnepp dropping bombs and saying he knows that Spiderman will be in #Venom on #collidrmovietalk Tom Holland’s Spiderman!

Schnepp quickly Re-Tweeted this, essentially giving it his seal of approval, but still, I’ve been burnt too many times not to be suspicious of this news. All accounts to date posit Venom as a completely standalone movie, one that Sony hopes might launch their own little Marvel universe. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man appearing would pretty much blow that out of the water, placing the film squarely within the MCU.

IGN Drops First Official Look At Tom Hardy's Venom 1 of 15

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With that also comes a certain amount of profit sharing between Sony and Disney, and while Spider-Man: Homecoming made both parties a bunch of money, major Hollywood studios aren’t famed for their cooperative skills. On top of that, putting Spider-Man in the movie implies that Tom Holland’s wallcrawler has already donned and rejected the symbiote suit, which feels like character development that we should probably see on screen first (let’s just ignore Spider-Man 3 for the moment). And, if it were the case, wouldn’t Sony want to be shouting this from the rooftops to build up hype for Venom?

If Schneep is right, I’d guess we’ll probably hear confirmation sooner rather than later. Until then, let’s keep an eye on where Tom Holland is shooting over the next couple of months…

Venom is set to crawl into theaters on October 5th, 2018.