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

The third Poison film may be subtitled The last dancebut as is the case with almost every superhero movie, it ends with post-credits scenes that tease another possible waltz. But the post-credits scenes dangle two storylines that will in all likelihood never see a sequel – as seems to be the case with most post-credits scenes in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and plenty of other superhero films.

Venom: The Last Dance follows Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock as he and the alien symbiote he bonds with (Venom, also voiced by Hardy) flee a government agency and an unstoppable alien assassin across the Nevada desert. Commander Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) leads the special forces in pursuit of Venom, as the organization known as Imperium attempts to capture all the various symbiotes that have landed on Earth. The alien creature also pursuing them is a xenophage, a vicious monster sent by a supervillain named Knull. Played by Andy Serkis (though you only see the top of his head for most of the film), Knull predates the universe and created all the symbiotes just so they could turn on him and imprison him. Venom and Eddie’s connection is the key to his freedom, and Knull sends the xenophage to track 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 Imperium’s help against the monsters. As long as Venom and Eddie are connected, there is a chance that Knull will be released, so Venom ultimately chooses to sacrifice himself in an acid bath that disables the xenophages and leaves Knull trapped forever. The movie ends with Eddie staring at the Statue of Liberty as clips play of all the good times he and Venom had over the past three movies.

But the post-credits scenes suggest that we may not have seen the last of Knull or Venom, even though in all likelihood we probably have.

What’s happening in the Venom: The Last Dance Post-credits scenes

Venom: The Last Dance‘s first post-credit sequence comes midway through the credits. We cut back to Knull, who is still sitting on his throne and still looking down, so we only see the top of his head and his greasy, long white hair. He is angry and notes that with Venom’s death, The King in Black has awakened 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 very much like a computer-generated fantasy villain, akin to something out of a World of Warcraft video.

This is pretty standard post-credits stuff – the defeated villain saying “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 connected to Eddie, there was a chance for Knull to escape his captivity. Knull, whose first appearance in Marvel’s comics was quite recent, in 2018, is also known as ‘The King in Black’, so he’s not teasing a new, bigger threat, just helplessly saying that we haven’t seen the last of him yet .

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

The second and final post-credits scene comes at the very end and it’s a funny callback. Earlier in the film, Eddie and Venom freaked out a bartender at a Mexican resort when they made themselves a drink behind the bar, using Venom’s tentacles to flip (and break) bottle after bottle of booze. After Eddie left, he left a tip on the bar – unknowingly leaving behind a small piece of the symbiote. A few scenes later, Rex showed up at the bar, collected the symbiote sample, and took the bartender in for questioning. He is not mentioned or seen until the post-credit scene, where the confused bartender stumbles out of the wreckage of Area 51, wondering what the heck happened. While this is happening, a cockroach crawls along the broken vial containing the symbiote sample, suggesting that Venom, like a cockroach, is harder to kill than you think.

This is again quite typical of a post-credits scene: a funny joke, combined with a bit of banter that the hero lives on. It has the bonus of not begging for follow-ups like the Knull scene does. Venom might not be dead after all! Isn’t that nice? That’s a completely different sentiment Knull, this villain who hasn’t actually done much in this movie, says he’s actually going to do something now. We’ll find out in the next movie?

The Poison films are by far the most commercially, and, to a lesser extent, critically successful films of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. Box office tracking for The last danceespecially overseas, is quite healthy, with projected sales of over $150 million, so it’s possible there will be a fourth film, but who knows if Hardy would want to tango for a fourth time. The ending of the film, post-credits excluded, certainly feels quite final. If there isn’t a sequel, Knull’s big braggart will join the ranks Mrs. Web‘s tease of a Spidey team that will surely never experience another adventure (no amount of money could get Sydney Sweeney to return for a supporting role in Mrs. Web 2) And Morbius‘s confusing multiverse-spanning Michael Keaton cameo.

The trend of dead-end post-credit scenes also extends beyond the Sony Spider-Man films. Many recent entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe end with teases that, based on the films’ reception, aren’t exactly likely to be revisited. Remember when Harry Styles showed up Eternals? Or when Hercules came in Thor: Love and thunder? Or when Kelsey Grammer put on the blue makeup to play Beast again The miracles is all said and done?

As the future of superhero movies seems less certain than it has for two decades now, it’s only natural that post-credits scenes – which often exist to set up the future – are also in a bit of trouble. Venom: The Last Dance has post-credits scenes because that’s what superhero movies do. Whether those scenes will matter in the future seems especially questionable.