Venom Concept Art Reveals Spider-Man Symbol Almost Got Replaced

Some new Venom concept designs have surfaced and the movie almost abandoned the Spider-Man insignia for a V. The image of the anti-hero without that giant spider on his chest is pretty strange to see. But, that’s what’s there in the images from TheVenomSite this week. Paolo Giandoso has some of the art in his portfolios and fans of the character should be intrigued by some of the gems hiding in there. A lot of Carnage is hanging around, and that should please fans waiting for the second Venom installment. But, that bold design choice would have probably proved to be a talking point headed into the Tom Hardy-led film before it’s release. There are a number of ways to explain the choice, but maybe, most simply, it would have been a way to distance the anti-hero from Spider-Man even further while Sony and Disney hammer out what the deal is going forward.

Comicbook.com actually had the chance to talk to VFX Supervisor Paul Franklin from DNEG. The team was responsible for helping make Venom feel larger than life on the big screen. Those comic influences played a huge role in the conversation.

“You know, we looked at all the comics series,” Franklin explained. “We looked at, a lot obviously, Lethal Protector, which was a big inspiration for the film in general, and that gave us something to work from. We also spent a lot of time looking at Venom: Dark Origin, a more recent interpretation of Venom. And, that is to say, what we responded to though, was the ever-changing, dynamic nature of the character.

“But ultimately, you have to let the thing be a little bit of its own thing for the screen, because what works on a comic book page, style wise, ostensibly two-dimensional universe, doesn’t necessarily work when you transform it into an image that’s on the screen. I need to think about the way that other comic book characters, their costumes and things, have been observed over the years,” he added. “Characters like Superman, you can compare him to the original single version of the character back in the ’30s to how he looks in the movies now. You’ve gotta allow it to breathe in the cinematic universe. And so, that was the jumping off point for us. And then it was a process of experimentation trial and error to get something which worked well in the film world.”

Would you have liked this alternate Venom design? Let us know down in the comments!