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Marvel fans have been left scratching their heads over a character appearance in the trailer for Venom 3.
On Wednesday (3 June), Sony released the first look at Venom: The Last Dance, the third and final film in the Spider-Man spin-off franchise.
As Sony owned the rights to characters from within the Spider-Man characters, their films typically occurred away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but as licencing deals changed, the studios have been collaborating.
In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Hardy, who leads the Venom series, showed up in a mid-credits scene set in the MCU and now, in the trailer for The Last Dance, another MCU character has shown up. However, their inclusion does not appear to make sense.
In the trailer, Chiwetel Ejiofor reprises his role of Karl Mordo, who was introduced in Doctor Strange and returned as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
But the character is worlds away from the one seen in the Doctor Strange franchise as he’s kitted out in army gear and is leading a gang of operatives to capture Venom, indicating that he is playing a different version of the character altogether.
This is confusing fans considering the fact that Mordo can be seen at the same location Venom is based in the No Way Home post-credits sequence, meaning this film is theoretically set within the MCU and Mordo should be the same character we’ve seen before.
Fans have subsequently deduced that the film is not set in the MCU – but that alternative Mordo’s appearance in the bar is a continuity error.
After watching the trailer, many expressed their confusion online.
One fan wrote: “So you’ve got Chiwetel Ejiofor in Venom 3 as a new character, which takes place in its own universe. But right here he’s in the MCU & he’s not playing Baron Mordo, who he previously played in the MCU… & he’s taking back the symbiote that was left in the MCU. Good Job Sony!”
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Another added: “I have questions. Like, why cast the actor that plays Mordo? Why was not-Mordo in 616 collecting the symbiote? Doesn’t that ruin No Way Home’s end credit scene?”
Meanwhile, an additional MCU viewer wrote on X/Twitter: “Am I the only one finding it weird that Mordo is now in Venom: The Last Dance? Not complaining though because I like the guy, but the multiverse is making it weird.”
Find more reactions below:
Venom: The Last Dance will be released in cinemas on 25 October.