The Irishman’s Stephen Graham Joins Venom 2

Former Boardwalk Empire actor Stephen Graham, who most recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed Netflix drama The Irishman, will next appear in Venom 2, according to Deadline. The site has no details on the role that Graham will play in the film, which was written by Kelly Marcel and will be directed by Andy Serkis. Graham, who played Al Capone on Boardwalk Empire and also appeared in Gangs of New York, Snatch (the movie version), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, will join an already-stacked cast that features Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson and Naomie Harris in key roles.

Graham’s most recent role before The Irishman was in Rocketman, in which he played record label executive Dick James. He can next be seen in Greyhound, a Tom Hanks World War II drama also from Venom studio Sony, in May.

Besides three BAFTA TV nominations (for This Is England ’90, Save Me, and Accused), Graham was part of a cast (Boardwalk Empire) that won two Best Ensemble awards from the Screen Actors Guild.

Following the success of Joker, Sony is reportely toying with the idea of making the second Venom movie an R-rated movie that would lean into some of the more horrific elements of the villain, Carnage. While Venom may kill sometimes, he does not revel in it the way Carnage — a symbiote spawned by Venom, which bonded to a serial killer — does. Of course, fans are unlikely to get their hopes up too high, since filmmaker Ruben Fleischer kept suggesting that the first Venom would maybe, probably, definitely, maybe be an R-rated flick before walking back on it in the last few months before release.

Casting rumors have revealed that Marvel supervillain Shriek will also be in Venom 2, suggesting that the film could actually be adapting Carnage’s second big kill spree in the comics – an event known as “Maximum Carnage”. In that story, Carnage breaks loose of Ravencroft Institute and gathers a gang of killers to terrorize NYC – starting with recruiting a fellow inmate named Shriek as his lieutenant / girlfriend. Again, that gang of killers requires Venom to reach out to Spider-Man for a helping hand – which has some Marvel fans speculating that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will be in Venom 2, a crossover that’s now very much possibly under the terms of the renewed deal between Sony and Marvel Studios.

Venom 2 hits theaters on October 2, 2020.