If Venom's success the first time around was largely due to the elements of surprise and
strangeness, what could the second one have up its sleeve?
A lot, potentially.
While the law of diminishing returns runs rampant in Hollywood sequels, Venom 2 could
actually improve upon its predecessor.
Making Venom the center of his own franchise presents Sony with some unique challenges
and possibilities.
After all, it's not very often that a comic book character who's usually a villain or
an anti-hero becomes the protagonist of a comic book franchise.
Luckily for Sony, Venom has a nemesis of his own: Carnage.
Carnage entered the Marvel Universe in the early '90s, when writer David Michelinie came
up with the idea of a symbiote stripped of Venom's moral code.
Along with artist Erik Larsen, he introduced Cletus Kasady, a deranged serial killer and
Eddie Brock's prison cellmate.
After coming into contact with some of Venom's drippings, Kasady became Carnage, a blood-red
monster that's fought both Venom and Spider-Man over the years.
Needless to say, Carnage creeping to the big screen in Venom 2 will make for a wild ride.
Carnage's appearance in the Venom sequel was promised by the movie's mid-credits sequence.
If you got up and left the theater as soon as that Eminem song kicked in, you missed
a performance with the potential to match Tom Hardy's in fearless weirdness.
Eddie Brock is sent to a prison to interview notorious serial killer Cletus Kasady, played
by Woody Harrelson:
"When I get outta here, and I will, there's gonna be carnage."
The Venom Blu-ray offered an extended version of this scene, giving Harrelson a little extra
time to make an impression:
"Talk about sucking out their eyeballs.
Crunchy on the outside."
With Harrelson's history of going all-out as mesmerizingly unstable characters in movies
like Natural Born Killers and Seven Psychopaths, Harrelson's expanded role in Venom 2 promises
to push it even more over-the-top than its predecessor.
Sony's plans to explore the dark corners of Spider-Man's world go beyond Venom and Carnage.
In 2018, the studio made the somewhat left-field announcement that Jared Leto would be starring
in Morbius.
For those unfamiliar, Morbius the Living Vampire has been a Spider-Man supporting character
since the '70s, although he really came into his own during the same '90s goth craze that
propelled Venom to stardom.
Very little is known about the plot of the Morbius movie, but Sony is pretty much guaranteed
to link these two antiheroes in their effort to keep up in the "Cinematic Universe" game.
The possible introduction of vampires into Sony's Spider-Verse opens up some intriguing
new supernatural doorways for Venom 2, even if Eddie Brock can't hold a candle to our
favorite vampire hunter:
"You give Frost a message for me.
You tell him it's open season on all suckheads."
We know that a Venom sequel is coming, and that Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson are contracted
to star, but that's really all we know for certain.
Jeff Pinkner, co-writer of the first movie, couldn't confirm any more than that in a recent
interview with the Discussing Film YouTube channel.
"I can't say anything other than that it is happening."
"Okay, it's happening.
Are you writing it?"
"I am not."
But while that was all the writer could say with certainty, he did drop one other major
statement
“It is not impossible that in a future or upcoming Venom movie that Spider-Man will
play a significant role."
With Sony's rapidly expanding Spider-Verse, a potential cameo by the webhead could take
many forms.
Maybe Tom Holland's MCU Peter Parker would swing by, or perhaps another alternate universe
incarnation would be the foil to Hardy's Eddie Brock.
Regardless, a crossover would be sure to get fans' senses tingling.
Superhero origins can be complicated.
That's why comics history is so full of reboots, retcons, and reimaginings.
It's also why the plot of the Venom movie was sometimes messy.
Take a look at most reviews, and you'll find that the story structure is one of the most
commonly criticized elements.
Sometimes, superhero sequels are stronger than their predecessors.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier outshone The First Avenger, Thor: Ragnarok proved that
the third time can be the charm, and The Dark Knight unquestionably topped Batman Begins.
Done right, Venom 2 has the perfect opportunity to address the first movie's biggest issues.
Even the negative reviews of Venom tended to dish out some positive comments about Tom
Hardy's bizarre dual performance as Eddie Brock and Venom.
It's no surprise that Venom appealed to a performer as adventurous as Tom Hardy.
After all, the job required him to tackle the primal acting challenge of performing
two-person dialogues with himself.
In fact, he may have had a little too much fun to fit in the movie, as he revealed during
the press junket that much of his favorite material didn't make the final cut.
“There are about 30 or 40 minutes worth of scenes that aren't in this movie."
"Those are your favorites, right?"
"All of them, yeah."
Although trimming down a film's more indulgent passages is a normal part of the filmmaking
process, it's hard not to wonder how entertaining all those scenes of Hardy enjoying himself
would be.
Now that it's clear what a strong asset his eccentric choices were in the first movie,
maybe the sequel will give him even more room to play.
"And I have proof!"
In his review for That Shelf, critic Victor Shiff said,
"Venom feels like several competing films — a Jekyll and Hyde story, an odd couple
movie, a broad comedy — stitched together into one incoherent mess."
It's hard to completely disagree.
Gritty violence, emotional melodrama, and wacky sci-fi goofs are all held together within
the movie's gooey structure.
Even when the individual elements make for a fun ride, it sometimes feels like a movie
that isn't quite sure what kind of total picture it's going for.
Of course, some of that tonal dissonance could be considered an accurate reflection of Eddie
Brock's splitting psyche as he adjusts to the idea of playing host to an alien entity.
And let's not forget that it's basically a Spider-Man movie without Spider-Man, a pitch
so odd that some uncertainty on the part of the filmmakers is understandable.
Now, though, the creators of the sequel can look back at the finished product to build
a stronger foundation to support the next chapter.
"Parasite?"
"It's a turn of endearment!"
"Apologize!"
"No."
"Apologize!"
"Alright, fine, I'm sorry."
Even during those early days of Venom hype when no one knew quite what to expect, fans
always had a checklist of things their favorite symbiote's big adventure should contain.
A movie about Venom should be dark, it could definitely get violent, it absolutely must
get weird, and it could potentially even get a little kinky.
There was a certain amount of disappointment, then, when the MPAA slapped the finished product
with a crowd-friendly PG-13.
Now that Venom has proven successful enough to get a sequel, Sony might also consider
it worth investing in a more niche film.
Even if Venom 2 is another PG-13 outing, more intense footage could be saved for an alternate
home video cut.
Like it or not, fans romantically shipping Eddie Brock and Venom was inevitable.
It's no surprise that a movie as bizarre and meme-worthy as Venom would inspire fans to
spend way too much time thinking about the bond between its two intertwined main characters.
Whether you see it as an interstellar buddy movie, a strangely star-crossed rom-com, or
a very particular kind of fetish story, it's undeniable that much of Venom's charm is in
the interplay between a boy and his blob.
"I am putting my hands up."
"You are making us look bad."
“No I am not!"
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
Of course, it took a long time for these two to become one.
Much of the movie was dedicated to introducing Eddie, setting up the symbiote's arrival on
Earth, contriving their accidental encounter, and running them through the trials of their
partnership.
It wasn't until the story neared its climax that they really started working together,
finally blossoming into the weird little family they were meant to be.
The sequel can take their relationship to new levels… maybe even some weird levels.
"Like a turd in the wind.
Do you feel me?"
"What the hell are you?"
"We are Venom."
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