Venom: The Last Dance's director says the threequel is "just the beginning" for Knull, which means we'll probably have to put up with Sony's Spider-Verse sans Spider-Man for a while longer

Venom's in-world creator Knull is set to appear in The Last Dance, but according to the film's director, he won't be the main baddie.

As Tom Hardy himself recently confirmed, Venom: The Last Dance will be the last entry in the Sony series, and as much as I love those dumpster fire films, it's probably for the best. Except, well, that doesn't matter all that much, as for some reason Sony has decided to put Knull, the creator of Venom and symbiotes more broadly in the comics, in the third and final film, while also not making him the main villain. Ok! Director and co-writer Kelly Marcel recently spoke with IGN about the upcoming film, and Knull's role in it, where she explained what you can expect from Knull in The Last Dance, or I guess how much you can expect from him going forward.

"One movie could never do justice to Knull," Marcel explained. "We were always aware of Knull, but knew that we needed to lay the foundation of the Venom character, and his relationship with Eddie, before introducing him. This is just the beginning for Knull. We're in spoiler territory now and we hope some of the fun of watching this movie is not knowing what will happen, but trust me, we know full well how important Knull is to the fans, so just as we laid a foundation for Venom, we hope we are doing the same for Knull. The King in Black is way too powerful for 'one and done.'"

She made the very fair point that "Marvel's greatest film villains are developed over time. Here, Knull is the threat lurking behind the danger that tests the absolute limits of Eddie and Venom's partnership - but it’s their relationship that remains the heart of this story." The big question I have there is, why Sony is deciding to develop this villain now? At the end of the trilogy of its most popular Spider-Verse sans Spider-Man series, with every other attempt at expanding that universe has bombed?

Yeah, I'm sure a woman whose mother died when she was researching spiders in the Amazon, buff, slow Quicksilver, and a vampire that may or may not have a cult are definitely going to be able to take on someone that's supposedly as threatening as Thanos. I imagine Sony has some kind of plan there, but sheesh, someone should really maybe try to reign that in a bit.