Venom 2: "Pressure" TV Spot Unleashes Maximum Carnage

By Cameron Bonomolo

It's Venom versus Carnage in a new look at the symbiote showdown of the century in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. When the Andy Serkis-directed sequel swings exclusively into theaters on October 1, investigative journalist and symbiote host Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) interviews infamous serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) to reignite his career. Escaping from prison after a failed execution, Kasady becomes the executioner when he bonds with a blood-red symbiote to wreak havoc and unleash maximum carnage on Sony's Spider-Man Universe in Venom 2. 

"Eddie and Venom have been living together, sharing one body, for a while now. They know each other inside and out, literally. And like any close-quarter living situation, their ticks and foibles are starting to wear a little thin on each other," screenwriter Kelly Marcel, who co-wrote the film's original story with star and producer Hardy, says in production notes from Sony Pictures. "They have been forced together through circumstance and this movie asks the question of whether there is a will to save the relationship or go their separate ways. Are they just cohorts through happenstance or do they actually belong together?"

After bonding with an alien symbiote to become an anti-hero and lethal protector in 2018's Venom, Serkis says, "Eddie is rather arrogant, thinking life owes him a favor. Venom is the complete opposite, unfiltered and speaking his mind totally. And they're trapped together. After meeting in the first movie, they've now got the seven-year-itch; they've had enough of each other and can't wait to be apart."

The "odd couple" must put their differences aside and work together when Carnage joins forces with Shriek (Naomie Harris), creating a deadly duo that Serkis says pushes the PG-13 rating "as far as we could possibly go." 

"100% we considered it," Hardy told ComicBook of an R-rated Venom 2. "With all of these symbiotes, you know, you consider it. You read the comic books and it is extreme, but that's not what we're here to do. We came here to make a movie...that's accessible to a lot of people, as well as that caters for everybody, including the hardcore fans. So I hope the hardcore fans at least take home that they look at Carnage and go, 'Yeah, I recognize Carnage from the comic books. I'm happy with that.' And yeah, no, we didn't bite everybody's head off, but we did stick a tongue down someone's throat pretty [far]." 

Added Serkis of infamously vicious villain Carnage, "Sometimes leaving things to the imagination is as powerful too. We pushed it as far as we could possibly go, but with some room to go in people's heads. That character is pretty scary and the kind of the truth of where that character emanates from and Cletus Kasady is a character that is amplified through Carnage, does a lot of the work. So I think we certainly fulfill a lot of the essence of Carnage."

Starring Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham, and Woody Harrelson, Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens only in theaters on October 1.

Trending Now: