A third film in the Marvel Comics-inspired Venom franchise started filming back in June, and at that time Sony Pictures was aiming to get Venom 3 into theatres sometime in October of 2024. Production had to come to a halt when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike in July – but Sony was obviously confident that the strike was going to be wrapped up quickly when they announced that same month that they had moved Venom 3 up to a July release. But the strike only came to an end last night, and as Venom 3 gears up to head back into production, Deadline reports that Sony now has it scheduled to reach theatres on November 8, 2024.
November 8, 2024 is a date Sony always had reserved for one of their Marvel-inspired properties… they just didn’t expect Venom 3 to be the film that would land on that date.
The first Venom was scripted by Jeff Pinker, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel. Ruben Fleischer directed that film, which made $856 million. But then Fleischer turned his focus to making Zombieland: Double Tap and Uncharted – so Andy Serkis took over as director on Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Which was written by Kelly Marcel, working from a story she crafted with Hardy. That sequel earned $506 million at the pandemic era global box office. Serkis said he would be glad to return to the helm for a follow-up – but when Venom 3 actually did come up, he opted to focus on other projects instead. So Venom 3 will be Marcel’s feature directorial debut. She also wrote the screenplay, based on a story she crafted with star Tom Hardy.
Hardy is reprising the role of Eddie Brock / Venom for this sequel, and he is joined in the cast by Juno Temple (Ted Lasso) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). Official details on Temple and Ejiofor’s characters have not been revealed – but no, Ejiofor is not playing his Doctor Strange character Baron Mordo, since the Venom films are set in a different universe than the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. There was a rumor that he might be playing Orwell Taylor, the leader of the group known as The Jury. As ComicBookMovie noted, “that group existed solely to take out Venom, with each member of The Jury outfitted in powerful armoured suits and tech based on Tony Stark’s designs. Throw in the fact that they had sonic blasters and flamethrowers, and it’s not hard to imagine the government tasking this clandestine group with taking out an apparent threat like Venom.” Members of The Jury in the comic book source material include Sentry, Bomblast, Firearm, Ramshot, Wysper, and Screech.
Are you looking forward to Venom 3? What do you think of its new November release date?