Warning: This post contains spoilers for Venom: The Last Dance.

The third Poison The film may have subtitles The Last Dancebut as is the case with almost every superhero film, it ends with post-credits scenes that hint at another possible waltz. But there are two storylines dangling in the post-credits scenes that will most likely never be followed up on – as seems to be the case with most post-credits scenes in Sony’s Spider-Man universe and many other superhero films.

Venom: The Last Dance follows Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock as he and the alien symbiote he has a bond with (Venom, also voiced by Hardy) flee across the Nevada desert from a government agency and an unstoppable alien killer. Commander Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) leads the special forces pursuing Venom as the organization known as the Empire attempts to capture all of the various symbiotes that have landed on Earth. The alien creature that is also pursuing them is a Xenophage, an evil monster sent by a supervillain named Knull. Knull is played by Andy Serkis (although in most films you only see the top of his head). The connection between Venom and Eddie is the key to his freedom and Knull sends the Xenophage to hunt them down.

By the end of the film, Venom and Eddie have realized that they cannot stop the Xenophages, even after Strickland realizes that the symbiotes are the lesser of two evils and offers the Empire help against the monsters. As long as Venom and Eddie are connected, there is a chance that Knull will be freed. Therefore, Venom ultimately decides to sacrifice himself in an acid bath that eliminates the xenophages and ensures that Knull remains imprisoned forever. The film ends with Eddie looking at the Statue of Liberty as clips play of all the good times he and Venom had in the last three films.

But the post-credit scenes suggest that we may not have seen the last of Knull or Venom, although in all likelihood that may be the case.

What happens in the Venom: The Last Dance Post-credits scenes

Venom: The Last DanceThe first post-credit sequence comes in the middle of the credits. We return to Knull, still trapped on his throne, still looking down, so all we see is the top of his head and his greasy, long white hair. He is angry and realizes that the King in Black is awake after Venom’s death and there is no one left to protect the universe. He looks up and we finally get a glimpse of Knull’s face, which looks a lot like a computer-generated fantasy villain, like something made out of one World of Warcraft Cutscene.

This is pretty standard post-credits stuff – the defeated villain says “I’ll be back” – but it makes no sense in the context of the film that preceded it. The whole point of Venom’s death was that as long as he was alive and linked to Eddie, there was a chance for Knull to escape his captivity. Knull, whose first appearance in Marvel’s comics came relatively recently in 2018, is also known as “The King in Black,” so he’s not teasing a new, major threat, just limply saying we haven’t seen him yet seen for the last time.

Read more: Review: Tom Hardy is a good reason to watch it Poison

The second and final post-credits scene comes at the very end and is an amusing callback. Early in the film, Eddie and Venom panicked a bartender at a Mexican resort while making themselves a drink behind the bar by using Venom’s tentacles to upend (and break) bottle after bottle of liquor. After Eddie left, he left a tip at the bar – inadvertently leaving behind a bit of the symbiote. A few scenes later, Rex appeared at the bar, collected the symbiote sample, and took the bartender in for questioning. He isn’t mentioned or seen again until the post-credits scene, in which the confused bartender stumbles out of the rubble of Area 51, wondering what on earth happened. As he does so, a cockroach crawls past the broken vial containing the symbiote sample, suggesting that Venom, like a cockroach, is harder to kill than you think.

This is also pretty typical for a post-credits scene – a funny joke combined with a little joke that lets the hero live on. It has the advantage that it doesn’t ask for follow-up shots like the Knull scene. Venom may not be dead after all! Isn’t that nice? This is a completely different feeling than Knull, this villain who hasn’t actually done much in this movie, says he’s actually going to do something now. I guess we’ll find out in the next movie?

The Poison The films are by far the most commercially successful Sony films from the Spider-Man universe and, to a lesser extent, the most successful. Cash register tracking for The Last Danceespecially overseas, is doing pretty well with an expected gross of more than $150 million, so it’s possible there could be a fourth film – but who knows if Hardy would want to tango a fourth time. The end of the film, excluding the credits, definitely feels pretty final. If there is no sequel, Knull’s Great Pride will be added to the series Madam Webis a tease about a Spidey team that will surely never have another adventure (no amount of money could convince Sydney Sweeney to return for a supporting role in). Madame Web 2) And Morbiusis Michael Keaton’s confusing, multiverse-spanning cameo.

The trend for dead-end post-credits scenes also extends beyond Sony’s Spider-Man films. Many recent entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe end with references that, based on the films’ reception, aren’t particularly likely to be revisited. Remember when Harry Styles came along Eternal? Or when Hercules appeared Thor: Love and Thunder? Or when Kelsey Grammer put on the blue makeup and then played Beast again The miracles Was everything said and done?

As the future of superhero films seems less certain than it has in two decades, it’s only natural that the post-credits scenes that are often used to set up the future are also somewhat stalled. Venom: The Last Dance has post-credits scenes because that’s what superhero movies do. Whether these scenes will be significant in the future seems particularly doubtful.