The MCU Already Showed How Venom Can Defeat Knull 8 Years Before Venom 3

How Venom can defeat Knull in Venom: The Last Dance was already teased by the MCU eight years ago, despite the symbiote storyline taking place in a totally different Marvel movie universe. As the last movie in the Venom trilogy, it was clear that Venom: The Last Dance would amp up the action and stakes of its overall story. However, few people were expecting this to entail the movie introducing Knull – an immensely powerful god-level entity and creator of the symbiotes – into the Sony Spider-Man Universe.

But the final trailer for Venom 3 revealed just that, resulting in a whole new round of speculation and theories regarding what the story of Venom: Last Dance entails. Since Knull is so powerful, this has also raised a lot of questions about how the duo of Eddie Brock and Venom can ever hope to win if they’re set against the Marvel villain. Fortunately, the MCU timeline provided the template for how to do just that almost a decade prior.

Doctor Strange Is A Perfect Example Of How Venom Can Beat Knull

Dormammu Is A Solid MCU Parallel For Knull

Marvel’s movies have been full of heroes taking down villains that are arguably far more powerful than them, with perhaps one of the closest examples to the prospective plot of Venom: The Last Dance coming in Doctor Strange. Stephen Strange’s MCU debut movie saw him face down Dormammu, the immensely powerful ruler of the Dark Dimension and the “Destroyer of Worlds”.

Compared to Doctor Strange – who had at this point only been aware of the magical world for a short period of time – the cosmic entity was inordinately stronger, especially since the pair met in the Dark Dimension itself, which Dormammu could shape to his will. However, this didn’t stop Strange from managing to win the overall conflict, with the newly minted magician using a combination of the Eye of Agamotto and the Time Stone to create a time loop that would allow Dormammu to kill Stephen temporarily, but never permanently, leading the pair to come to a deal instead.

With Knull being so much more powerful than what audiences have seen from the Sony Spider-Man Universe’s version of Venom thus far, it stands to reason this type of approach is the only way Eddie and his symbiote ally stand a chance of beating the god of darkness. And while the cards are stacked against the duo, it stands to reason that they need to have some kind of victory against the symbiote creator for Venom: The Last Dance to serve as a fitting ending to all that came before in the trilogy.

Venom: The Last Dance Needs Venom To Win Against Knull To Make The Trilogy’s Ending Work

The Venom Trilogy Needs To End On A High Note

As the last installment of the trilogy – and seemingly perhaps the last time audiences will see Tom Hardy playing Venom altogether – having Venom 3 end with Venom losing entirely against Knull in every sense would seem somewhat too bleak of a finale for the film to go forward with it. Since the Venom series is one of the more comedic superhero movie series of recent history – and since it takes great pains to not take itself too seriously, including scenes like Eddie Brock floundering in a lobster tank, or Venom’s chicken heist – playing the final installment so seriously sounds perhaps too intense.

Even if Venom: The Last Dance ends with the death of the Venom symbiote or Eddie Brock – or both – it stands to reason that the movie will give the pair some victory of sorts to balance this out, ensuring audiences don’t leave the final installment in an otherwise relatively comedic trilogy feeling like they’ve been emotionally blindsided. It’s already been teased that a hero sacrifice may be in order, which would also potentially carve out a way for the duo to win against Knull, much in the same vein as Doctor Strange’s victory required him to be willing to die several times in order to come out on top.

Venom: The Last Dance’s Trailers Have Already Hinted At How The Movie Can Mirror Doctor Strange

Venom: The Last Dance May Have Introduced How Knull Can Be Beat In The Same Trailer That Revealed He’d Be Introduced

Knull was revealed in the final Venom: The Last Dance trailer, which also appears to hint at how Eddie Brock and his extraterrestrial partner can stand against such an immensely powerful opponent. Though the most direct tease is the hint that one or both of the characters may have to sacrifice themselves – as is made a clear potential path by the statement directed at Eddie Brock that “this world can’t survive if you stay together” – Venom’s mention that, “we have something he needs” raises some clear potentially for the road to victory.

If Venom is talking about something literal here that Knull wants to acquire – as appears to be the case, given he’s likely referring to the symbiote codices, which are remnants of symbiote left in those they bond to – this does potentially give them the means to gain the upper hand, particularly since it suggests Venom isn’t to be entirely destroyed, and that him bonding to a range of animals throughout the movies may make Knull’s attempts to regain the codies akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

However, there’s also the chance Venom is speaking metaphorically. It’s worth noting that in Marvel comics, the Hive-Mind that oversees and influences symbiote behavior is influenced by the symbiotes within it as well – and while the first two Venom movies introduced other symbiotes as antagonists, it’s possible Venom is having a long-term impact of some sort that could be weakening Knull’s control of the faction. If something like this is the case, it’d be possible for Venom and Eddie to “win” by freeing at least some of the symbiotes from Knull’s influence.

This latter option could even see the pair manage a full Doctor Strange-esque victory outright, since in the comics, the symbiotes have previously outnumbered Knull to an extent that they’ve been able to trap him down before, and an untold number of theoretical symbiotes would stand a much better chance than the two occasionally bumbling Venom protagonists. However, exactly how Venom: The Last Dance unfolds isn’t yet clear, and will no doubt remain a mystery until the movie itself sheds more light on the story in October.

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