Andy Serkis officially signs on to direct the Venom sequel

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Update: THR has reported that Andy Serkis has officially signed on to direct the VENOM sequel. In a post on Instagram, Serkis said, "Verified It’s actually happening. I can feel it, the Symbiote has found a host in me, and I’m ready for the ride…Can’t wait! Are you ready @tomhardy?" Thoughts?

–

You would be forgiven for believing that VENOM had all the makings of a box-office bomb, and although the Sony Pictures film didn't receive the best reviews, it did manage to make a pretty penny at the box-office ($856 million), which guaranteed that a sequel would soon follow. As Ruben Fleischer is busy with ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP, Sony is on the lookout for someone new to take the reins of the VENOM sequel, and according to THR, that person could very well be Andy Serkis.

If you're surprised to see Andy Serkis up for the gig, you're not alone, but THR notes that he's one of several filmmakers in the mix at this point. (Update: Variety added that Rupert Wyatt and Travis Knight are also contenders.) Serkis flew out to meet with Sony executives earlier this week, who want the VENOM sequel to kick off production in November. While most know Serkis from his acting roles in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, BLACK PANTHER, WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, and STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, he does have plenty of experience behind-the-camera as well. Serkis served as the second unit director on THE HOBBIT trilogy before making his directorial debut with the biographical drama BREATHE which starred Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. Serkis then took the helm of the performance-capture heavy MOWGLI: LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE for Netflix. This experience would make Serkis a good fit for the equally visual-effects heavy VENOM sequel, but as I mentioned, he's just one of several directors up for the gig. What do you folks think? Would you like to see Andy Serkis direct VENOM 2?

The mid-credit sequence in VENOM found Woody Harrelson making an appearance as Cletus Kasady/Carnage, obviously providing the set-up for a bigger role in the sequel. Director Ruben Fleischer said earlier this year that he held off on introducting Carnage in order to properly establish Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his bond with Venom.

We’d like to think that this movie will expand to other movies and Carnage is, I think, the most beloved of the Venom adversaries, with the exception of probably Spider-Man. And so we definitely didn’t want to include Carnage in this first movie because it felt like we wanted to establish Eddie and Venom and so that’s why we worked having Riot as our main adversary. But the intention or the ambition was to show that there are legs for the franchise in that a fan favorite let alone played by Woody Harrelson would be something we could look forward to in the future.

Fleischer added that he's also looking forward to witnessing Woody Harrelson explore his darker side. "When you think about a guy named Cletus, and off the comic book pages what he might be like, this insane serial killer, if you think about Woody in Natural Born Killers and the menace that he brought to that character, I think it’s really exciting to think about him going to that darker place again," Flesicher said. "Because recently he’s been playing more kind of heroic or comedic parts so to see him going to that kind of darker space, I think, is going to be incredible."