We’ve finally gotten our first real look at the titular symbiote in Venom, toothy smile and all, but the biggest surprise from this second trailer changes pretty much everything we thought we knew about this movie. This new trailer doesn’t make it seem like a continuation of Venom’s story, like he was chased out of New York City by Spider-Man. This new trailer instead makes it seem like this is Eddie Brock’s origin story as Venom, which pretty much changes everything.
Sony released a new trailer for Venom late Monday night after footage of the symbiote leaked just before. This one explains a lot of the story, especially how Eddie Brock is some kind of hardcore investigative journalist that helps Jenny Slate’s character, who works at the Life Foundation, look into experiments attempting to bond humans with alien symbiotes. Perhaps the most radical difference from previous footage and information we have about this movie is that Venom does indeed look like an anti-hero origin story after all, because Brock seems totally human before he gets infected at the Life Foundation facility, and then he has some identity crisis as his powers emerge. That explains why we’ll probably never see Spider-Man in this Venomverse.
Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock in 'Venom'.
Unlike the first trailer, which focused on Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and only hinted at the Venom symbiote, this new trailer shows Eddie using his black Venom tendrils to do all sorts of things. When a few thugs show up at Brock’s apartment and attack him, the symbiote fights back, which totally surprises Brock. That sort of confirms that his being bonded to the symbiote is a totally new thing that happens during the movie.
Perhaps the most noteworthy thing the Venom symbiote does outside of letting Eddie do some truly sick motorcycle tricks is how it folds the toothy Venom face right over Eddie’s own at the jawline. It’s deeply unsettling considering all those teeth, but it’s also kind of awesome:
Venom being a legit origin story is especially weird considering how closely Venom’s traditional origins are tied to Spider-Man’s interactions with the symbiote. Furthermore, Venom director Ruben Fleischer confirmed that the movie loosely adapts two specific comic book storylines that take place long after Venom is an established character. In those stories, Venom gets chased out of New York City by Spider-Man and he goes to San Francisco to start a new life. There, he has to fight a handful of other symbiotes.
It does indeed look like there will be other symbiotes in Venom based on this trailer, but there’s still no sign of Woody Harrelson as Carnage
All of this raises tons of questions. Why does Eddie Brock have that strained New Yorker accent if his New Yorker status doesn’t even matter? How did he even wind up in San Francisco to begin with? Why would he use his girlfriend’s connections to berate a scientist? Will the movie bother to answer any of these important questions? Most importantly: Where are my goddamn pictures of Spider-Man?
Venom hits theaters on October 5.
For comparison, watch the symbiote-lite first Venom trailer:
