Venom: Let There Be Carnage Writer Says Andy Serkis Was Perfect to Direct the “Rom-Com Mixed With Horror”

Despite Venom becoming a smash hit at the box office, the powers that be behind the franchise opted to start with a fresh director for its sequel. Before long, Andy Serkis — best known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings franchise — boarded the projects. As it turns out, Venom: Let There Be Carnage scribe Kelly Marcel couldn’t have asked for a better collaborator.

Speaking with DiscussingFilm, Marcel says she couldn’t help but “fangirl” when Tom Hardy revealed Serkis as the next director.

“Firstly, I just completely embarrassed myself by fangirling because I was just such a huge fan,” Marcel told the website. “It was Tom’s idea, he came to me and was like, ‘What do you think about Andy Serkis?’ I probably screamed for a few minutes. Then he was asked to come on to the movie by Tom and I had lunch with Andy in Los Angeles, and it was just embarrassing. Basically, I asked him to do a Gollum impression, I was just really like, ‘Oh my god, it is really Andy Serkis.’ I was losing my shit. So yes, I was very excited when Andy came on board, then I calmed down, somewhat.”

As Marcel puts it, Serkis was the perfect filmmaker to balance the love-hate relationship — or “rom-com” — aspect of the Venom and Eddie Brock (Hardy) relationship while combining it with elements of horror.

“He was the perfect addition to the team and he really got the tone of what we were trying to do, which is a sort of weird balance between rom-com mixed with horror,” the writer added. “Andy was just so down for that. But also, he’s brilliant with CGI and knows how to make a creature feel real. He’s also the loveliest man on the planet, by the way.”

When Serkis joined ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast earlier this month, the director seemed entirely on board with directing the third film in the franchise as well.

“A hundred percent,” Serkis revealed. “I mean, I think there’s so much potential in the Venomverse for really interesting journeys before the kind of the inevitable happens… I think Kelly and Tom have been thinking about what is the next stage of the journey anyway. They would have thought of… They would have had some plans for where they could possibly go after this… You’ve got to. When you’re going into a franchise, you’ve got to think about the arc, of course. You can’t think about them just individually.”

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now playing in theaters.

What other Spidey characters would you like to see make the leap to live action? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!