Ever since VENOM director Ruben Fleischer teased the arrival of famed Spider-Man villain Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) at the close of Tom Hardy's 2018 anti-hero spectacle, fans of the serial killer symbiote Carnage have been climbing the walls while waiting for more details concerning the character's return to Sony's Spider-Verse franchise.
While we haven't been given an official look at the crimson-colored criminal just yet, Hardy recently took to his personal Instagram account to tease the inevitable clash between Venom and Carnage, two of the most notorious symbiotes in all of the Spider-Verse. I say notorious because have you ever tried counting how many symbiotes there are in Marvel comics nowadays? It's a Herculean task that I wouldn't push on anybody, not even my worst enemies. Well, okay, perhaps I would saddle my nemesis with that responsibility. Mwuahaha!
In the above image, Hardy has posted art that lovers of the stage will recognize as a riff on the famous "Comedy" and "Tragedy" masks. In this case, Carnage represents "Comedy," as symbolized by his cartoonish grin. On the other end of the theatrical spectrum is Venom posing as "Tragedy," which I can only assume does not bode well for our black-hearted hero. While I can't help but read far too much into just about everything that crosses my path, I wonder if Venom's tragic look is foreshadowing for events that are yet to come. Could it be that VENOM 2 will see Carnage killing off someone who's near and dear to Eddie Brock? Michelle Williams' Anne Weying perhaps? Granted, that's not how she dies in the comics, but when has that ever stopped Marvel from re-writing events that would be sure to devastate fans of their superhero fantasy films?
Directed by stop-motion master Andy Serkis, VENOM 2 stars Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, and Naomie Harris as Shriek.
Marvel has set VENOM 2 for an October 2, 2020 premiere.