Sony finally realised its ambition of releasing a Venom movie this weekend, having been in development on a solo film for the fan-favourite anti-hero since his big screen debut back in 2007’s Spider-Man 3.
At several points during this development stage, the plan had been to include the character of Carnage as the villain (even going so far as to greenlight a project entitled Venom Carnage back in 2014) but director Ruben Fleischer chose to go down a different route for his film by utilising another symbiote, Riot.
During an interview with CBR to coincide with the release of Venom, Flesicher has admitted Sony knows fans are keen to see Carnage – hence the reason he was kept out of this first movie:
“I think, you know, there’s a certain symbiote spawn that I think fans are most excited to see. So that one was off the table. Hopefully at some point in the future they will. So we wanted to save kind of the most anticipated one for the future. And not just that, but because we really wanted this movie to be about Venom. And so, it was just honestly kind of like, who’s the coolest looking spawn who isn’t that one? The most badass, you know? That’s where Riot came from. He’s the biggest of the Life Foundation symbiotes, he’s got that gun metal grey. I don’t want to say it was purely an aesthetic decision, but the aesthetics definitely played a big part.”
SPOILERS FOR VENOM FOLLOW…
As had been previously rumoured Carnage – or at least his host, Cletus Kasady – does make a very brief appearance in the mid-credits scene of Venom, setting the symbiote up for a starring role in the sequel (assuming the box office warrants a second movie, with early indications suggesting that it will indeed be a financial hit). And, speaking to CinemaBlend, director Fleischer has spoken about the cameo, stating that Woody Harrelson was the only actor he ever envisioned for the role:
“He was the first person I thought of to play Cletus Kasady. And what will be fun is, if you think about Woody in Natural Born Killers, and that darkness and that menace that he can bring to a serial killer like Cletus Kasady, you know, he can go real dark and explore that. Carnage is going to be… just thinking about Venom pitting off against Carnage is just so exciting. And hopefully fans leave the movie really looking forward to that next one. Because I think also just seeing Tom and Woody go head to head, you know, those are two great actors that I think can really create some exciting scenes.”
Are you looking forward to seeing Tom Hardy’s Venom and Woody Harrelson’s Carnage squaring off in a sequel? Let us know your thoughts on that in the comments below…
SEE ALSO: Read our review of Venom here
One of Marvel’s most enigmatic, complex and badass characters comes to the big screen, starring Academy Award nominated actor Tom Hardy as the lethal protector Venom.
Venom is directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and features a cast that includes Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Reid Scott, Scott Haze, Sope Aluko and Ron Cephas Jones.
