The past three years could be considered a movie renaissance of Marvel superhero Spider-Man, following the early-2000s Sam Raimi trilogy and the early-2010s “Amazing” films, both from Sony and Columbia Pictures which held the cinematic rights to the character for so long. An agreement between Marvel Studios and Sony-Columbia led to them sharing those rights, allowing Spider-Man to appear in the MCU franchise while Sony develops spinoff films featuring other Spider-Men versions like the recent animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Venom” starring Tom Hardy as the alien-possessed antihero and classic Spider-foe. Its strong box office performance has inspired Sony to work on a sequel.
The Hollywood Reporter has it that Sony is going ahead with developing a follow-up installment to their October 2018 film “Venom”, to premiere at a yet to be specified date. This came in the wake of a respectable take in the box office last year, P855 million, despite the movie being savaged by critics that got poor impressions on Sony-Columbia’s first Spider-Man spinoff following the main hero becoming shared between them and Disney-Marvel since “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016. This development was also hinted in “Venom” itself by following the now-standard superhero film convention of having a mid- or post-credit scene as sequel hook.
For the planned sequel, Sony is taking on the services of Kelly Marcel as scriptwriter, returning from the original and concurrently with her other project for Disney: “Cruella”, a live-action spinoff prequel of “101 Dalmatians”. Also returning on the production team are producers Avi Arad, Amy Pascal and Matt Tolmach. Less sure is the comeback of “Venom” director Ruben Fleischer, who is busy with a “Zombieland” sequel, though he expects to be called once the sequel is ready to film.
Lead star Tom Hardy is a sure bet to reprise his role as investigative reporter Eddie Brock, symbiotic host to a goo-like alien creature that transforms him into the titular Venom, a giant black-suited monster with super strength and a many-fanged mouth with a long tongue. Also set to reprise is Michelle Williams as Brock’s estranged fiancée Ann Weying, and Woody Harrelson who appeared in a mid-credits cameo as Kletus Cassidy, known in the comics as another symbiote host and homicidal super-villain called Carnage. This would effectively make Harrelson the primary antagonist for the “Venom” sequel when it finally releases.
Other entries in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff films have proven just as successful with viewers as “Venom”. December 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” not only got great critic reviews, it also won Best Animated Feature Film in the recent Golden Globes.
Image from Entertainment Tonight Canada
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