Did Tom Hardy Just Tease Andy Serkis for Venom 2?

Rumors have begun to swirl about who will direct Venom 2, and it looks like franchise star Tom Hardy has added some major fuel to the fire. On Wednesday, Hardy took to Instagram to share a black-and-white photo of Andy Serkis, who had begun to be on the rumored shortlist late last week. The photo has since been deleted, but a screenshot can be found below.

While this isn’t necessarily confirmation that Serkis will direct Venom 2, the post – and the fact that Hardy deleted it – is certainly piquing people’s interest. Also on the rumored shortlist with Serkis were Bumblebee director Travis Knight and Planet of the Apes‘ Rupert Wyatt.

There is a bittersweet notion to Venom 2 searching for a new director, especially considering what the first Venom film set up in its post-credits scene. The sequence saw Hardy’s Eddie Brock interviewing Cletus Kassidy/Carnage (Woody Harrelson) in a maximum-security prison, setting up a clash between the two in a sequel.

“I obviously have a close relationship with Woody,” Venom director 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.”

Regardless of how the cast and crew for Venom 2 take shape, it sounds like the sequel still wouldn’t take the franchise 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.”

Do you want to see Serkis direct Venom‘s sequel? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.