Black Panther star Andy Serkis has officially been tabbed as the director of Venom 2 and he’s busy taking in all the Venom knowledge he can. Moments after the news first broke this afternoon, Serkis took to his Twitter profile to share a selfie of him and a copy of Venom: Lethal Protector #6. Coincidentally enough, the early-1990s mini-series provided some inspiration for the initial Ruben Fleischer-helmed Venom.
Seeing Eddie Brock and his symbiote move cross-country from New York City to San Francisco, Lethal Protector sees the character turn from a villain into an antihero as he battles symbiotes eviler than himself like Scream, Lasher, and Agony. Though it’s likely Serkis is just consuming whatever Venom comic content he can, the run could certainly provide inspiration, especially if the film ends up pitting Venom against Carnage.
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Though exact details on the Venom sequel remain quiet, it’s likely Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady/Carnage will serve as the film’s primary antagonist. Prior to the initial film debuting last year, Fleischer told ComicBook.com Harrelson was one of his favorite actors to work with. It’s unclear if Fleischer’s departure from the project will impact Harrelson’s willingness to appear.
“I obviously have a close relationship with Woody,” Ruben 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.”
Despite being panned by critics, the film was much better received by fans. While Rotten Tomatoes’ critics-controlled Tomatometer has Venom at a 29 percent Rotten rating, the Audience Score is a completely different story at 81 percent Fresh. Commercially speaking, the film performed exceptionally at the box office, grossing $856.08 million worldwide, including an astonishing $642.57m in international markets.
Are there any specific comic runs you think Venom 2 should adapt? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Venom 2 is scheduled for release on October 2, 2020.
