Tom Hardy Confirms Venom Plot Rumors
Little by little, Venom is creeping out of the darkness.
Ever since its unexpected announcement in May, the finer details of director Ruben Fleischer and Sony's Venom movie have remained shrouded in secrecy.
News that Tom Hardy would play the Eddie Brock version of Venom was followed with the steady reveal of a truly intriguing cast, including Jenny Slate, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, and Reid Scott. But the production has continued to hold details of the movie's plot close to the vest—until now.
According to Inverse, Hardy and Fleischer reportedly confirmed the movie's source material during an appearance via satellite at Comic Con Experience 2017 in São Paulo, Brazil.
Specifically, the duo confirmed persistent rumors that the film would be, at least in part, an adaptation of the limited comic book series Venom: Lethal Protector. They also revealed that the movie would be taking inspiration from a symbiote-centric Amazing Spider-Man comic arc, "Planet of the Symbiotes."
The 1993 Venom series, written by David Michelinie, was notably the first plotline in Marvel Comics history to paint Venom as an anti-hero, rather than a villain.
The six-part story followed Eddie Brock leaving New York City for San Francisco, following an agreement with Spider-Man to end their constant fighting with a truce. There, Brock is tracked down by five other seeds from the Venom symbiote—evil siblings to the alien creature named Scream, Lasher, Phage, Riot, and Agony.
The Amazing Spider-Man's "Planet of the Symbiotes" arc, released in 1995, featured those villainous characters returning under the leadership of Carnage for a full symbiote invasion of Earth. A major theme of the plot arc was the strength of the symbiotes' control over the free wills of their human hosts, and at one point it saw Brock force the symbiote to leave him after he grew tired of it encouraging him to kill.
From a storytelling perspective, it makes sense that Sony would establish the violent and unpredictable Venom as a good guy rather than a villain by having him face off against a cadre of symbiotes that are all much meaner than him, and both of these comic plots establish that. They also feature more than enough symbiotic villainy to spark a whole new franchise for Sony, provided they play it all just right.
Both story arcs also feature the involvement of Peter Parker's Spider-Man, with the original webslinger trekking out to San Francisco to fight on Venom's side during his solo story.
As of now, there is no indication that Spider-Man will be making that same trip in the movie—by that point, after all, he's going to be in the middle of a full-blown Infinity War.
Venom will be released in theaters on October 5, 2018.-