We still have tons of questions about what, exactly, Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man spin-off starring Tom Hardy as Venom is going to look like, but it appears we know who the villain is going to be. In a story about Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the studio plans to feature the savage baddie Carnage in the 2018 film.
The THR story is largely about how Marvel Studios and Sony were able to make nice while co-producing Homecoming, but it does include a brief, tantalizing tease of what’s to come. “As for the expansion plans, Tom Hardy is starring in Venom, dated for Oct. 5, 2018, which will also feature the villain Carnage,” THR writes, though they don’t expand on the reveal or disclose a source.
So, maybe take the news with just a grain of salt (it’s early in the movie’s production and things change, after all), but if it’s true, expect Venom to throw down with an even more exaggerated version of himself. If Venom detractors say the brutal villain is emblematic of everything that’s bad about “xtreme” ‘90s comics, then Carnage is that, but more.
In the original comics, Carnage is an offshoot of the Venom symbiote who, having evolved on Earth with memories of the symbiote’s original host, Spider-Man, is even stronger than two characters combined. The Carnage symbiote bonded with Cletus Kasady, a psychopathic serial killer, because, of course it did.
The same THR story reports that Sony is also eyeing movies focusing on Spidey villains Kraven the Hunter and Mysterio, but neither of them are as metal as Carnage is.
Venom will hit theaters on October 5, 2018.
