Across The Spider-Verse Confirms THAT Massive Marvel Multiverse Crossover

This article contains major spoilers for "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"

Apart from voice roles, you don't usually expect too many huge cameos in an animated movie, but "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is no ordinary animated film. Its multiversal nature and copious art styles are custom-made for some truly amazing surprises, and the movie uses its possibilities to the max. From a LEGO brick world to the appearance of the PlayStation "Spider-Man" game in Miles Morales' (Shameik Moore) universe, it seems that the movie is going to cover every possible form of media save for live-action ... and then, the live-action characters start appearing, too.

Apart from subtle footage cameos by the three major live-action Peter Parkers (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland), viewers are treated to an imprisoned live-action version of the Prowler, as played by Donald Glover. However, the biggest live-action appearance in the movie is Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) from the "Venom" movies. Footage of the universe-hopping Spot's (Jason Schwartzman) encounter with her surfaced before "Across the Spider-Verse" premiered, but the Spider-Verse-Venom crossover tease raised some suspicion at the time. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it appears that the "Venom" movies are indeed a part of the Spider-Verse, and the massive Marvel multiverse crossover could open all sorts of floodgates. 

When the Spot starts exploring different multiverses, one of the first people he encounters is Mrs. Chen, who very characteristically doesn't bat an eyelid when she sees a faceless supervillain materialize in front of her. As the Spot notes, it almost seems that she's used to that kind of thing ... which she of course is, given that the Lethal Protector himself guards her shop in exchange for chocolate treats. 

The brief scene might seem like a throwaway joke to the uninitiated, but it's huge for "Venom" aficionados. "Venom" and its sequel are part of Sony's Spider-Man Universe, which is yet to feature any actual Spider-Men, and therefore has been occupying a strange peripheral place in the Spider-canon. However, the titular character's appearance in the stinger of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" meant that Tom Hardy's Venom isn't quite as far removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as one might think — and now that "Across the Spider-Verse" offered us a brief glimpse into Mrs. Chen's shop, it's clear that Venom's home reality is part of the big Spider-Verse picture just as much as the MCU. 

"Venom" characters' newfound tendency to turn up in other Spider-adjacent movie universes increasingly suggests that Sony is exploring ways to bring its Spider-Man Universe breakout to other, established cinematic realities. More importantly, the fact that the "Venom" Earth is part of the Spider-Verse strongly suggests that it has a Spider-Man, as well. All in all, don't be surprised if the movie Venom finds a way to face off with some version of his comic book nemesis sooner rather than later.