Cast This: Carnage (in Sony's Spider-Man spinoff Venom)

Cast This: Carnage (in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff Venom)

July 7th 2017, 10:01am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Before Spider-Man could swing into his own solo Marvel Cinematic Universe adventure with SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, Sony was already preparing a series of movies starring the wall-crawler's comic book supporting characters, beginning with supervillain/antihero VENOM.

Tom Hardy will wear the living black suit with the flailing tongue, but there seems to be some confusion as to whether the Tom Holland incarnation of Spidey will make an appearance (Marvel honcho Kevin Feige most recently indicated it wouldn't happen), or if the character will even be directly referenced. But we recently learned that regardless of whether web-head himself is involved in the movie, the plan is to have Venom face the vicious villain Carnage.

So where did Carnage come from? Well, let's take a few steps back to Marvel's 1984 comic crossover event "Secret Wars", in which Spider-Man acquired a nifty black "smart" costume equipped with built-in web-shooters and power-enhancing properties. However, after wearing the outfit for some time, Spidey learned it was actually a sentient alien parasite that was adversely affecting both his physiology and his life, and he forced it from his body.

The symbiote survived and bonded with Eddie Brock, a disgraced journalist with a serious grudge against Spider-Man. Fueled by their mutual hatred of the superhero, the pair became the menacing archenemy Venom. The malevolent amorphous extraterrestrial was also capable of reproducing, which resulted in other symbiote villains such as Scream, Toxin, Hybrid, and the most notorious of them all: Carnage.

One of Venom's offspring merged with a sadistic serial killer named Cletus Kasady, magnifying his psychotic tendencies to become the murderous entity known as Carnage. Infamous for his chaotic red-and-black visage, Carnage is driven by Kasady's destructive and homicidal urges, and becomes a nemesis to both Spider-Man and Venom.

Kasady began his bloodthirsty ways as a child, pushing his grandmother down a flight of stairs and burning his orphanage to the ground before continuing a lifelong killing spree. During his incarceration as an adult, Kasady wound up sharing a cell with Eddie Brock (locked up after a defeat by Spider-Man), establishing the initial connection between the hosts. When Brock's symbiote returned and allowed him to break out of jail, it unwittingly left behind a spawn that grafted to Kasady and created a savage new villain with a violent resentment toward Venom, the "father" that abandoned it.

Attached to their human host, each symbiote has the ability to change shape and size, disguising itself as regular clothes or transforming into deadly weapons. They also retain abilities from previous hosts, granting Spider-Man's increased strength and wall-crawling power (plus the suit's organic webbing) to both Venom and Carnage. The outfit also makes its wearer resistant to physical harm, but is vulnerable to intense sound, extreme heat and high-voltage electricity.

The origins and motivations of the characters may change from their comic versions for Sony's VENOM adaptation, but core aspects will surely remain. Although Carnage itself will undoubtedly be realized on screen through a significant amount of CGI, that wicked symbiote will still need a human host — especially one that could out-crazy a superpowered Tom Hardy.

So who should play antisocial lunatic Cletus Kasady? Here's a few suggestions.

Damian Lewis ("Homeland", "Band of Brothers") is a fine actor with plenty of intensity, and somehow hasn't been in one of these huge comic movies yet. Ben Mendelsohn was relatively subdued in ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY but seems like he could make a terrific and terrifying over-the-top villain. Kristofer Hivju, probably best known from "Game of Thrones", could definitely crank up the crazy.

Let us know below who you think would make a killer Carnage!