Venom 3: Andy Serkis Reveals Why He Isn’t Returning to Direct Trilogy’s End

Sony Pictures is pushing forward with their Universe of Spider-Man characters even though their Morbius movie failed tremendously at the box office. The studio is currently filming a Madame Web movie that will star Dakota Johnson and is in post-production on their Kraven the Hunter movie that will star Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Venom has been the most successful project out of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and they recently revealed who will direct the third film in the franchise with Venom: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis sitting this one out. Now, Serkis is revealed why he won’t direct the third film. During a new interview with /Film, Serkis told the site that he is simply just to busy with other projects to helm the Venom sequel.

“Look, I had a ball doing [Venom: Let There Be Carnage]. Tom Hardy is such a good friend of mine, and I felt very proud of the work, and we had such fun doing it,” Serkis said. “To be the custodian of that franchise for a little while was great. I’ve got so many projects that I was just about to [work on], like ‘Animal Farm’ for instance. We were just about to go into production with that, and then we delayed as ‘Venom’ came up. I really have to be very on top of the ones that I’ve been building to do for such a long time. But I’m really delighted that Kelly’s doing that. She’s so in control of that material with Tom. The pair of them are such a great team to work with. I’m really excited to see what they’re going to come up with.”

Tom Hardy recently shared the script cover for the third film to his Instagram story, along with a “Last Dance” caption, which suggests to many fans that Hardy does not plan to return to the franchise after the trilogy. Of course, that doesn’t mean Sony couldn’t have more Venom, as there have been other hosts for the symbiote over the years.

Back in August, Hardy said that he had plenty of ideas for a third movie, suggesting even then that he hoped to be involved with the early stages of the creative process.

“I would be remiss if I wasn’t trying to steer any kind of connectivity,” Hardy said of a potential Spider-Man crossover at the time. “I wouldn’t be doing the job if I wasn’t awake and open to any opportunity or eventuality or be excited by that. Obviously, that’s a large canyon to leap, to be bridged by one person alone, and it would take a much higher level of diplomacy and intelligence, sitting down and talking, to take on an arena such as that.

“Should both sides be willing, and it be beneficial to both sides, I don’t see why it couldn’t be,” he continued. “I hope and strongly, with both hands, push, eagerly, towards that potential, and would do anything to make that happen, within what’s right in business. But it would be foolish not to head towards the Olympic Games if you were running 100 meters, so yeah! I want to play on that field.”

What do you think of Serkis’ comments? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @NateBrail up on Twitter!