‘Venom’ Sequel to Reportedly Feature Carnage

Venom fans just got the most concrete info yet about the film’s potential sequel — including the villain that could end up appearing.

A new report from Variety revealed that a second Venom movie is officially in the works, with Fifty Shades of Grey‘s Kelly Marcel returning to pen the sequel. The report also hinted at some of the characters who are expected to return, including Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) and Cletus Kasady/Carnage (Woody Harrelson).

While many had assumed that Cletus would be appearing in the second film, especially after the way that he was introduced in Venom‘s post-credits scene, this seems to confirm that he will be suiting up as his symbiotic counterpart in one way or another.

It’s unclear at this point exactly what shape the Venom sequel ends up taking, with director Ruben Fleischer possibly not returning thanks to conflicting schedules with Zombieland 2 (a film that Harrelson is set to appear in). As it turns out, Fleischer and Harrelson’s established rapport even factored into the way that Cletus was introduced in Venom.

“I obviously have a close relationship with Woody,” Fleischer explained to ComicBook.com last year. “And he’s one of my favorite actors, if not my favorite actor, and he’s just also an incredible human being. So, when we were thinking about including that scene and laying the groundwork for a potential sequel, he was the first person I thought of and a just because selfishly I’m really excited to work with him again, whether it’s in Zombieland 2 or the potential sequel to this film. But if you think about Natural Born Killers and Mickey, the character he played in that film, I feel like there’s a real lineage that you can trace from Mickey to Cletus and I also think that he hasn’t gone dark in that way for a while.”

And even with some pretty gnarly source material that could inform Carnage’s debut, it sounds like the sequel might not venture into R-rated territory.

“You know what? When you hear Venom…forget Venom. When you hear, Carnage, the only thing you can think of is R. But, if you know his story, if you really know the comic, there’s no R here.” producer Avi Arad explained last year. “He’s a tortured soul. It’s not about what he does, because we never have to show the knife going from here to there, and the blood is pouring. What you have to show is, what is the motivation? Was he born like that, or it’s someone we should feel for, because if you are succeeding to make a villain someone you can feel for, jackpot.”

Are you excited to see Carnage factor into Venom‘s sequel? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Venom is now available on DVD, BluRay, and Digital.