Venom Towers Over the Golden Gate Bridge in New International Poster

Sony has released a new international poster for Venom that sees the titular symbiote-sporting anti-hero looming large over San Francisco.

The fresh poster sees investigative reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy, center) flanked by girlfriend Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) and industrialist Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), whose symbiote alter-ego Riot can be spotted below left.

Ticket pre-orders and online ticket retailers confirmed earlier this week the Spider-Man-less Marvel Comics adaptation is rated PG-13 with a 1 hour and 52 minute runtime.

Fandango Editor-in-Chief and industry insider Erik Davis said on Wednesday the PG-13 rating allows for Venom and Spider-Man — played by Tom Holland in Marvel Studios' Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe — to "face off at some point down the line." Because Spider-Man is a PG-13 franchise and a kid-friendly superhero, an R-rating would hinder an eventual crossover.

Spider-Man is not expected to appear despite past comments from Spider-Man: Homecoming and Venom producer Amy Pascal, who led the charge in forging 'Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters,' a Marvel Comics-inspired shared universe operating outside of the MCU.

Last June, Pascal told FilmStarts both movies "will now take place in the world that we are creating for Peter Parker," who in the Marvel comic books is Venom's chief rival and sometimes ally.

"They'll be adjuncts to it, they may be different locations, but it will still all be in the same world," she said. "And they will be connected to each other as well."

While Pascal tried to characterize — either intentionally or accidentally — the then-unnamed Sony Universe of Marvel Characters as an offshoot of Marvel Studios' 10-year-running shared universe, Marvel chief Kevin Feige told AlloCine there is "no plan" for Venom in the MCU, calling the Tom Hardy-led movie "a Sony project."

Pascal later clarified her comments when speaking to ComicBook.com during the Spider-Man: Homecoming press tour, telling us "all these characters are a part of the Marvel comic book universe."

"In that universe, they are all related to each other. Kevin makes characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe," she said. "These characters are separate, except for Spidey, who belongs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is why he's there."

Asked if that rules out a future Spider-Man and Venom crossover, Feige said, "We never say never," with the addendum a merger of the two distinct and separate universes isn't likely to happen "any time soon."

Hardy has since inked a three-movie deal as the studio hopes to launch a franchise with Venom, which precedes other planned SUMC-set spinoffs Morbius, Black Cat, and Silver Sable.

Venom opens October 5.