Tom Hardy's Venom Is Done - But The MCU Can Recast Him With One Person

"Venom: The Last Dance" might be a box office success, but the reach of Tom Hardy's final stint with the symbiote hasn't stretched as far as its predecessors. As it stands, the threequel in the franchise has earned the least of the trilogy on its opening weekend, slithering just over the line of $51 million compared to "Venom's" $80 million and "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" raking in just over $90 million. Regardless of the results, though, the post-credits scenes in "Venom: The Last Dance" suggest that Sony still has plans for the antihero thanks to the appearance of the King in Black, Knull. But when the lord of symbiotes finally steps off his throne, it should be an all-new Venom that meets him — and we think we've found the perfect man for the job.

There's a star waiting in the wings who is fully deserving of a vehicle like Venom. He's an action hero who already has the experience of portraying a one-man army and has the ability to bring the fierce and unpredictable ferocity that Hardy's iteration was considerably lacking in. He's a man who can strike fear into the hearts of the criminals and supervillains that Venom so rarely rumbled with in the last three films while leaving you wondering if you should be rooting for him or not. It doesn't matter what portal or alternate reality Sony digs into to revive Venom from; just make sure that Alan Ritchson is Eddie Brock in the MCU.

Hard as it might be to imagine now, Alan Ritchson came out of nowhere for many viewers when he debuted as Jack Reacher, the hitchhiking tree of a man who wanders into towns, solving problems and snapping bad guys limbs on Amazon Prime's "Reacher." Now, with a third season on the way in addition to appearing in films like "Fast X," "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," and eight other projects that are currently in the pipeline, there's no question that Ritchson is quickly going from a hot name to a scorching one. What better gig to give him, then, than to throw him into the MCU's iteration of an established comic book antihero?

While Ritchson has said he wants to be the DCU's new Batman, his similarities lie closer to Eddie Brock than Bruce Wayne. In the current Marvel Comics era, Brock is a sharp, frame-filling figure, just like Ritchson's Amazon-based action hero, not Tom Hardy's twitchy, nervous wreck. That was the recurring problem with every "Venom" movie; Brock never really tapped into the barbaric nature of the symbiote. If the new version does, then that would line up with the kind of physicality Ritchson throws into his "Reacher" action sequences while demanding he stretch his acting muscles by portraying what's essentially a split personality. It would be a winning formula, but it's one that would need to utilize the approach Sony took when it came to letting Marvel Studios build their beloved wall-crawling menace as a far more successful franchise.

Sony releasing Peter Parker on loan to Marvel Studios and the MCU was the smartest move it could have made and is still making. Allowing the web-head to rub shoulders with the likes of Captain America and Doctor Strange led to Sony having a stake in one of the most successful films of all time with "Spider-Man: No Way Home." While there's always a chance that a new "Venom" arc could earn nearly the same level of success if Sony maintains full creative control of the character, shifting him over to the MCU to finally share the screen with Peter Parker would finally allow for a chapter in Marvel history that fans would kill for, and it could be done as a full-on reboot.

Thanks to the events of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and the opening of "Venom: The Last Dance," we know that variants can look either exactly the same or totally different than their existing counterparts in other realities. With that in mind, an Eddie Brock resembling Jack Reacher could be wandering around Earth-616 right now, minding his own business, just waiting to get a costume fitting that's (literally) out of this world. This approach could lead to Venom becoming a more prominent and viable character, one worthy of playing in the same sandbox as Spidey and his Marvel buddies. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he could even eventually join the Avengers. Such a signing to the superteam might sound a little out there, but it is comic book canon — and Ritchson does have an existing history with the MCU.

In February 2024, Ritchson told Men's Health that he was in the running for Thor but admitted that he didn't put the work in like he should've. "I didn't take it seriously. I was like, 'They'll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.'" The gig went to Chris Hemsworth, but in hindsight, Ritchson's most notable role to date proves that he'd have made a decent son of Odin. Heroic, oafishly charming on occasion, and looking unquestionably cool while taking out droves of goons is a normal day for Jack Reacher. It's also the kind of character description comic book fans would give Eddie Brock as well, so there's no reason Ritchson couldn't pair up with Venom to deliver the same results.

While it's expected Thor will return to action when the Avengers are asked to assemble once more, there's no confirmation on when we can expect the son of Odin to have another solo outing, if that happens at all. As a result, the Avengers and the MCU as a whole are going to need a musclebound lug that can rip villains apart with ease, and Ritchson with a symbiote is a perfect alternative to the Asgardian butt-kicker. More importantly, if he elevated the franchise like he's clearly capable of, it would allow the arrival of Venom's Thanos-level foe to actually get the treatment he deserves and tip Marvel further into the dark territory it's already circling.

"Venom: The Last Dance" may have teased Knull, but the threequel ends with the same frantic-yet-flat energy as pretty much every Sony comic book movie post-credit sting — like the studio doesn't really know what it has planned for the villain. If this is the case, wouldn't a better idea be for Knull to jump realities in search of another codex to break him free from his prison and find it in an all-new Venom that's a little tougher and is a more lethal protector than the one we've spent three films with? At this point, Sony should allow Knull to act as the impetus for Ritchson's Venom to integrate with Earth's Mightiest Heroes and actually set up an adaptation of "The King in Black" story event that "The Last Dance" fumbled through.

Introducing Knull to the MCU could also open up the opportunity to adapt some iconic moments in Marvel Comics history into a massive event. Tom Holland's Peter Parker could find a black suit in "Avengers: Secret Wars," leading to a new codex being made and Knull following the signal before the symbiote finds its way onto Ritchson's Eddie Brock. It might sound like a lengthy journey, but it would be a dark one that Venom and Eddie deserve, one that demands a brutish, rough-knuckled antihero to be the more intense mirror of Spider-Man that Tom Hardy's version simply wasn't. Please, Sony, make the smart move. Let Ritchson bond with the symbiote and go a few rounds with Spider-Man. It'd be a perfect fit.