Warning: Full spoilers follow for Venom: Let There Be Carnage. If you just want to know how many end credits scenes there are in Venom, we’ll tell you right here: There is one mid-credits scene.
Read on if you want all the spoilery details on it.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (read our review) has finally arrived, and it’s a zany, over-the-top journey into symbiote madness. Directed by Andy Serkis, and starring Tom Hardy once again as both Eddie Brock and his alter ego Venom, the film is as much a break-up comedy as it is a superhero movie. And yet, Serkis and Sony Pictures (and Hardy presumably, who is also a producer on the film) are sure to leave the audience wanting more with that age-old Marvel trick… the post-credits scene. And it’s a big one.
But what exactly happens after the credits of Venom 2? And how many end-credits scenes are there? Read on…
How Many End Credits Are in Venom 2?
Venom: Let There Be Carnage has just one post credits scene, but as Ned Ryerson might say, it’s a doozy.
After Venom/Eddie Brock dispatch Cletus Kasady/Carnage (Woody Harrelson) and Shriek/Frances Barrison (Naomie Harris), the bonded pair seems to basically retire to a beachfront life, away from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco — and all the people Venom might want to eat, and all the cops who might want to arrest them.
The credits roll on Venom 2 as Eddie is sitting on the beach, but then we get a mid-credits scene involving none other than Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and, apparently, the MCU!
Spider-Man in Let There Be Carnage
Fans have been waiting for this moment for ages, and it’s finally here: The MCU version of Spider-Man is now poised to meet up with the Tom Hardy Venom. And the set-up is all here in Venom 2’s credits scene.
Eddie/Venom are now resting in their hotel room watching TV, when Venom tells Eddie that he is ancient and has seen things that Eddie couldn’t comprehend, like other universes. He offers to show Eddie a quick glimpse of these experiences, and suddenly the room sort of blinks out around them and they find themselves in a nicer, quite different hotel room. And on the TV is none other than J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) outing Peter Parker as Spider-Man, just as we saw at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. (Though it should be noted that it’s not the exact same scene from Far From Home. Presumably Jameson just keeps hate-broadcasting about Spidey/Peter Parker constantly.)
It appears that somehow Eddie has been transported to the MCU. Or maybe it’s a variant timeline that has both Tom Holland’s Spidey and Tom Hardy’s Venom in it? But no other MCU heroes? It’s impossible to say, because the scene ends so quickly (with Venom licking the TV and being very interested in Spidey, before the proper resident of that universe’s hotel room exits the bathroom and asks a befuddled Eddie what he’s doing there).
Did Venom, in trying to show Eddie a bit of his vast galactic experience, transport Eddie to the MCU? Or did whatever it is that Doctor Strange is up to in the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer actually pull Eddie into the MCU, just as it is apparently doing with Doc Ock and other Spidey characters from non-MCU films? We know the multiverse of the MCU is a thing now thanks to the events of Loki, and as depicted in What If…? And it seems like there’s a chance that we’ll at least see Venom in Far From Home, if only in a cameo.
Detective Patrick Mulligan in Venom 2: Will He Become the Toxin Symbiote?
In a word, yes.
Detective Mulligan is a guest at the unholy wedding of Shriek and Carnage at the film’s climax, and he winds up in a tussle with Shriek that goes very badly for both parties in the end. The prologue to the film tells us that Mulligan, as a young cop, shot and blinded Shriek in one eye, and she gets her revenge in the present day when she attempts to gouge one of his eyes out and hangs him.
He’s seemingly left for dead. But later, after the battle between Carnage and Venom has ended, we see that Mulligan isn’t only still alive, but that his eyes are blue and glowing now. What does this mean? In the comics Mulligan became the host for the symbiote known as Toxin, which is an offspring of Carnage’s. It’s a little unclear what happened in Venom 2, but it seems possible that Shriek and Carnage’s offspring was implanted in Mulligan by Shriek before her (apparent) demise under that church bell that came ringing for her.
The bottom line: Toxin seems a sure bet to show up in Venom 3, with Mulligan as its host. But will Spider-Man also appear in the film? The Sony Marvel slate of characters also includes Jared Leto’s Morbius, coming in early 2022, and there are several other films in development as well. Maybe Toxin will wind up being just one super-being in Venom 3. Either way, Venom is about to find himself in a whole new world of possibilities.
What did you think of the Venom 2 post credits scene and ending? Let’s discuss in the comments! And for more on the film, here's how to watch Venom 2. And get the scoop on Venom's release date dilemma while you're at it.