In order to bring the bane of Spider-Man’s existence to life, Sony is turning to the Bane of our existence, Tom Hardy. Sony announced that Tom Hardy will play the eponymous Venom/Eddie Brock in the Sony’s forthcoming Marvel movie. Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer will helm the Spider-Man follow-up, which will enter production this fall and hit theaters on October 5, 2018.
Tom Hardy is Eddie Brock in #Venom, the upcoming film from Sony’s Marvel Universe releasing October 5, 2018 – production starts this fall. pic.twitter.com/OZQqDEvoum
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) May 19, 2017
The news that Tom Hardy is attached to yet another comic book franchise shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Hardy was originally tapped to play Rick Flagg in Suicide Squad before scheduling conflicts forced him to drop out, and his name has been bandied about for everything from Wolverine to The Punisher over the years. In fact, Hardy is producing an adaptation of Vertigo Comics’ 100 Bullets, too, but evidently the actor has been a longtime fan of Venom, so this move seems perfect for him.
What is particularly fascinating about this film is that it isn’t a spin-off of Spider-Man as many had originally speculated. Rather, as Nerdist learned last March, this Venom film is the first entry in Sony’s burgeoning expanded universe of films based on the Marvel Comics character licenses it owns that Spider-Man: Homecoming will kick off this July.
Venom was first created by writer David Michelinie and artists Todd McFarlane and Mike Zeck in 1988, and quickly became one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Comics universe. Venom is an alien symbiote, a parasitic lifeform that latches on to a human host in order to survive, imbuing its meat condo with an array of superhuman powers that rival Spider-Man’s.
The Venom symbiote first appeared in 1984’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8, a comic book mini-series that saw Marvel’s most popular heroes transported to a faraway planet called Battleworld. When Spider-Man’s costume was damaged in a fight, he discovered a strange black orb that spread over his body and gave him a new costume. This was originally a ploy by then-editor-in-chief Jim Shooter to sell Spider-Man action figures (which it did), but it wound up becoming a major part of Spider-Man lore when the suit began trying to permanently bond itself with Peter Parker.
When the symbiote reappeared in 1988, it affixed itself to disgraced journalist Eddie Brock, who blamed Spider-Man for all of his personal and professional woes. Dubbing himself “Venom,” Brock became one of Spider-Man’s most murderous and dangerous arch-nemeses. That being said, Venom has been recast as an anti-hero in the vein of Deadpool over the years (but with less of a motormouth), at times even teaming up with the likes of Spider-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy to take down larger threats.
Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach will produce Venom alongside Amy Pascal, with Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner penning the script. Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps at this time, but we do know that this will feature the Eddie Brock version of the character rather than the Flash Thompson or Mac Gargan version.
What do you think of Tom Hardy as Venom? What storyline would you like to see it follow? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: Marvel Comics; Warner Bros
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).
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