What will happen to Knull's story now that the SSU is over?

What a predicament the King in Black found himself in. Before the release ofVenom: The Last Dance, director Kelly Marcell stated Knull was such a big character for him to be in just one movie, and that there weremany symbiote stories on the horizon. Fast-forward a bit over a month, andSony's Spider-Man Universe is officially overafter the release ofKraven the Hunter. What was once an endless ocean of stories has now run dry. That means projects such asEl MuertoandJackpotwon't get to see the light of day, so an important question to ask is: What about Knull? Is he gone for good as well after less than five minutes of screen time?

Venom: The Last Dancegave us just a glimpse of the god of symbiotes, and implied he would one day obtain a Codex to escape from Klyntar. At the time, it was widely believed that such a storyline could be followed up in one of two projects. The first one was areported Agent Venom moviethat sounded like a realistic possibility given that audiences witnessed a soldier named "Thompson" lose both of his legs in the final act of Venom's latest adventure. The other was a project featuring Juno Temple's Teddy Paine who got ahold of a piece of the symbiote and helped fight the Xenophages hunting Eddie and his other.

Needless to say, if any of those projects were actually in the cards at Sony, they are now axed by all means. Instead, the studio will shift its attention to releasingSpider-Man 4, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,and theSpider-Man Noirseries. So even if Knull was set up to become a Thanos-like villain, those few minutes of screentime inVenom:The Last Dancecould be all we get from him. However, there's one saving grace; one only project where the King in Black could show up to finish what he started

Spider-Man 4 is the only place where Knull could show up

Multiple rumors indicate we haven't seen the last of Tom Hardy's Venom yet. Apparently, he'll fight Tom Holland's Peter Parker inSpider-Man 4, only to then team up with him to face a bigger threat. That's right, ladies and gentlemen,Knull is reported to appear in the movieas well. This is only backed up by the fact that Sony Japan accidentally teased the Lethal Protector willindeed make a comebackon Jul. 24, 2026.

On the downside, it's extremely unlikely Marvel will make a whole trilogy about the symbiote storyline. After all, insiders claimDaredevil: Born Againwill set upthe events ofSpider-Man 5which, in turn, would see the wall-crawler and the Man Without Fear team up to take down the Kingpin of crime. So Knull's huge story and set up in comic book pages will be reduced to one single movie at best, and that doesn't seem like enough.

The King in Black is still trapped on his home planet, so he isn't even a direct threat yet. Maybe the beginning ofSpider-Man 4could see him somehow escape from imprisonment, and the movie could build up to his arrival on Earth in the third act. However, it's important to remember other characters such as Venom and Peter will take a lot of screen time (and that's not even mentioning how characters such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Men, Wanda Maximoff, and Star-Lord will all supposedly show up too). With that in mind, the movie could risk either feeling too crowded or not doing justice to Knull's character.

Even if the god of symbiotes does show up one last time on the big screen, it's impossible to deny the death of the SSU undid most plans that were in store for him. Perhaps we never know what Sony's original plan for the character was (if they had any), but let's hope he at least has the chance to go out with a bang.

Spider-Man 4will be released on Jul. 24, 2026.

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