Venom 2 Eyeing Naomie Harris to Play Shriek

Earlier this week we got the news that Venom 2 had added a second villain alongside Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady / Carnage: Shriek, the sonic-based villainess who became Carnage’s top lieutenant / lover in the famous “Maximum Carnage” crossover event in ’90s Marvel Comics, which featured Venom and Spider-Man teaming up to take on Carnage, Shriek and a team of monstrous killers terrorizing New York City. Now a new report is out that claims to know who will be playing Shriek in Venom 2, and it is none other than James Bond‘s new Moneypenny, Naomie Harris!

According to Variety, Naomie Harris is currently “in talks” for the Venom 2 role of Shriek, looking to join the returning stars from the first film, which include Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams and Woody Harrelson.

If you’re unfamiliar, Shriek (real name Frances Louise Barrison) is psychopath with the superhuman ability to manipulate sound and the minds of others. After suffering through an abusive childhood at the hands of her mother, Frances ended up on the streets selling drugs and pulling other crimes. Her life changed drastically when she encountered street-level Marvel heroes Cloak and Dagger, as the former trapped her in the dark dimension inside his cloak, a trauma which activated Frances’ latent mutant powers and give birth to “Shriek”. Her continued life of super-powered crime eventually landed Shriek in the Ravencroft mental institution, which is where Cletus Kasady / Carnage finds her, while making his escape from confinement there.

Carnage is uniquely impressed by Shriek’s power and malevolence, and takes her under wing as his top lieutenant / lover. The two twisted lovers reframe themselves as “parents” of a Charles Manson-like family of murderous Marvel villains (Demogoblin, the Spider-Man doppelganger monster, Carrion), and set off on a campaign of murder and terror across NYC. It is Shriek’s secondary power for amplifying negative emotions in others that allows Carnage’s Gang to inspire an entire wave of murder and mayhem that washes over the city in a red wave. Shriek would later be in and out of Ravencroft in later Spider-Man comic book stories, and even nearly regained a sense of goodness and sanity for a time, but eventually all roads lead her back to Carnage, as she’s rejoined her lover for several additional campaigns of terror, which have included Shriek eventually wearing a Carnage symbiote of her own, for a time.

Needless to say, Harris would be a good choice to bring the combination of Goth glamour and twisted malice to the Shriek role (see: 28 Days Later), and she has the chops for some great superhero action moments (see: Spectre).

Venom 2 hits theaters on October 2, 2020.