Marvel Studios/Sony PicturesThey ain’t gonna know what hit ’em: the director of Venom says the anti-hero will clash with Spider-Man on screen.
Raking in more than $850 million at the box office, a sequel to Venom (which was critically panned, sitting at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes) was inevitable.
However, Ruben Fleischer has stepped out of the director’s chair, letting Gollum himself, Andy Serkis, take the helm.
Sony PicturesBut that isn’t stopping the first film’s director from revealing where the Marvel Comics characters are heading.
In an interview with Fandom, Fleischer said Tom Hardy’s Venom and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man are destined to come together.
As per Fandom, Fleischer said:
That’s where it’s all going to lead. And that’s the exciting thing, because we changed the origin of Venom… in the comics, he evolved from Spider-Man but because of the Marvel-Sony thing we weren’t able to that.
And so the thing I think it’s building towards, and will be exciting to see, is when they actually do confront each other.
Sony producer, Amy Pascal, confirmed Hardy will be returning to the wacky role, telling Fandango: ‘I can say that Tom Hardy will be back, magnificently playing that character as no one else can.’
Check out the trailer for Venom below:
After the mass divide between the fans and critics with the first film, Fleischer was happy to let Serkis take on the sequel.
Fleischer added:
If anything, I would have changed the critics’ reaction to it. I was really bummed that people didn’t like it because it’s a crowd-pleasing movie and I’m not sure if there was just blow-back against Sony or people just worship Marvel.
But I was really surprised that the critics [were gunning for it] because audiences really enjoyed the movie. And so many people who’ve seen it just appreciated that it was a fun superhero movie. So I was a little surprised. I don’t know what they were expecting.
There’s just one slight problem with the idea of Venom and Spider-Man colliding (or perhaps co-operating) – contracts, lots and lots of them.
Marvel StudiosSpider-Man is owned by Sony, but is essentially leased out to Marvel Studios so that his role in the MCU can continue for (at least) two more films, probably in order to tie up the explosion of threads following Far From Home (however, little is known about the ins and outs of the deal).
Venom, on the other hand, is an exclusive member of Sony’s Marvel Universe – separate from the MCU, darker in tone (with Mobius and Kraven the Hunter movies in the works).
Sony PicturesHow the heads at Sony and Marvel plan to integrate Spidey into Venom’s world (one where he’d surely already know who the webslinger is) is yet to be seen.
Let’s see how Venom 2 goes first – with Woody Harrelson appearing as Carnage, one of Marvel’s nastiest villains.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.