Venom 2 Release Date, Cast, Director and Everything to Know
Andy Serkis will direct Venom 2, which had better be titled Maximum Carnage.
| | Venom 2 is very much in the works, set to commence its parasite-pushing production in 2020.
Andy Serkis (Mowgli, Breathe) is behind the camera on Venom 2, and the motion capture performance specialist is probably the perfect choice for a movie that will hopefully feature multiple symbiotes. He replaces the first film’s director, Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Gangster Squad). The film, of course, follows up Sony’s (Spider-Man-less) 2018 spinoff film, which stars Tom Hardy as the iconic Spider-Man villain-turned-anti-hero. The film made $856 million worldwide.
As the mid-credits scene of Venom – in which Hardy’s Eddie Brock met incarcerated serial killer (and eventual symbiote host,) Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) – made abundantly clear, Carnage is coming to Venom 2! Indeed, the sequel is called Venom: Let There Be Carnage…
Venom 2 Cast
Stephen Graham has joined the cast of Venom 2 for an undisclosed role, reports Deadline. Graham, an English actor, fields a prominent role in director Martin Scorsese’s recently released Netflix film, The Irishman, and will be seen this month as Jacob Marley, in the FX/BBC miniseries update of A Christmas Carol. Over in the U.K., he recently starred in Channel 4 miniseries The Virtues and fielded a Series 5 run on BBC crime drama Line of Duty. However, he may be best known stateside for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, his run as Al Capone on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and appearance in Rocketman. Interestingly, Graham’s presence in Venom 2 will serve as a reunion with star Tom Hardy, with whom he appeared on 2017 FX series Taboo (a series that’s been mulling a second season for a few years now).
Naomie Harris (28 Days Later, Moonlight) is to play Shriek, a new villain added to the Venom 2 rogues gallery, reported Deadline. The character – the proverbial Harley Quinn to Carnage’s Joker – is the villain’s psychic-powered psychotic main squeeze, and becomes his homicidal partner in crime.
The addition of Shriek seems to point to a storyline adapting the 1993 multi-Spider-Man-title-spanning storyline, “Maximum Carnage,” in which the character, born Frances Barrison, meets Kasady/Carnage while both are imprisoned in Ravencroft Institute, eventually facilitating a jailbreak alongside Carrion, Demogoblin and Doppelganger, embarking on a chaotic spree across New York, magnified by Shriek’s mutant ability of manipulating peoples’ emotions to turn them violent. In the comics, the effort to quell said spree required the collective efforts of Spider-Man, Venom, Black Cat and The Avengers. – This aspect will most likely play out differently in the film.
Of course, Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock for Venom 2. Woody Harrelson will also show up in a ridiculous wig to give life to Cletus Kasady, better known as the grotesque red symbiote, Carnage.
Venom 2 Director
Andy Serkis confirmed his director gig with an Instagram post back in August 2019…
Serkis has directed before, notably with Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Warner Bros’ attempt to capture the magic of the Jungle Book tales. His experience doing motion capture performances for films like the recent Planet of the Apes films, King Kong, and of course, his brilliant turn as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies means that maybe, just maybe, we’ll be getting more symbiote action in the sequel. If Sony intends to curate their own corner of the Spider-Man universe, upping the ante here would probably help their case.
Read more: The 15 Craziest Venom Moments in Marvel History
Kelly Marcel, who wrote the first film, is writing the sequel.
Venom 2 Release Date
Venom 2 is now eyeing a June 25, 2021 release date.