As an FYI, spoilers for Venom: Let There Be Carnage are included in this blog entry!
So the day after I watched
Venom: Let There Be Carnage last weekend, I read a couple of articles
(like this one) regarding the glowing pupils in Detective Mulligan's
(Stephen Graham) eyes after he was left for dead by Shriek
(Naomie Harris) atop that cathedral at the end of the film.
It turns out, this was a hint as to what Mulligan might become in the next
Venom film should it get made...and that's him having his own alien symbiote that transformed into the anti-hero known as Toxin!
In the Marvel printed series
Extreme Carnage, just like in Let There Be Carnage, Mulligan comes face-to-face with Carnage—who infected him with a piece of symbiote that caused him to become Toxin in the comic books.
However, unlike Carnage
(who is pure evil and tentacle-riddened savagery), Toxin isn't so villainous, but
still tentacled...and actually formed a partnership with Spider-Man as Toxin fought his crimson-skinned creator and Venom himself.
If the ending of Let There Be Carnage is any indication, Spidey isn't the only foe that Venom will confront in his next cinematic appearance—but also an obscure villain who casual moviegoers
(like me) didn't know about until we Googled about the various Easter eggs found in
Venom 2.
I'm thinking that a
really cool post-credits scene for this December's
Spider-Man: No Way Home would be of Peter Parker
(Tom Holland), MJ
(Zendaya) and Ned Leeds
(Jacob Batalon) kickin' it at Parker's apartment when someone comes knocking at his front door.
The visitor is none other than Detective Mulligan...who traveled all the way to New York City from San Francisco to ask Parker if he could help the detective confront a certain sharp-toothed nuisance that's been plaguing California's Bay Area.
(Mulligan became aware of Parker thanks to news coverage of him regarding the Mysterio incident in the end credits scene of Spider-Man: Far from Home.)
Mulligan shows Parker the front page of a
Daily Bugle newspaper, and of course, Venom made the main headline and photo!
Mulligan suggests to Parker that they should team up against Venom, which makes Peter skeptical. Parker himself knows that he could hold his own against Eddie Brock's
(Tom Hardy) alien symbiote—what with Peter being an Avenger and all—but what does Mulligan have to offer in this fight?
It's at this moment that Parker, MJ and Ned watch in stunned disbelief as Mulligan nonchalantly transforms into Toxin. Before Peter himself can get up in arms in regards to the giant symbiote standing before him at the front door, Toxin assures Spidey that he is not the webslinger's enemy and asks for his help once more...extending a clawed hand, which reverts back to the human hand of Detective Mulligan, before Peter reluctantly shakes it in agreement.
MJ and Ned obviously continue to watch this in stunned disbelief.
Of course,
LESS THAN ZERO PERCENT of what I just typed in the last four paragraphs will actually happen at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but's it something fun to speculate about!
All I can say is, there's
no way that director Andy Serkis would've included that final cryptic shot of Mulligan in Let There Be Carnage if that was
indeed the last we saw of him. Spider-Man and Venom are both the good guys in their respective films, so it's unlikely that they'll have a protracted fight scene when they finally meet each other for the first time.
There's most likely an actual antagonist that will force Spider-Man and Venom to team-up and fight against...and if
Morbius and all of the other classic Spidey villains are too predictable a foe, then Toxin will do
just nicely! We'll see.
And
yes, I'm gonna watch Daniel Craig's final James Bond film
No Time to Die tomorrow! Carry on.
