Sony is moving forward with their plans to expand the Spider-Man universe by setting an entire film around the character of Venom, however, it turns out that's not the only major villain who will be in the new movie. A new report claims that the other major Spider-Man villain born of an alien symbiote, Carnage, will also make an appearance.
This news is buried in a larger story by The Hollywood Reporter about Spider-Man and the strange path that the newest version of the character has taken back to the big screen, being a collaboration between both Sony and Marvel Studios. It simply includes the information that Carnage will be part of the previously announced Venom movie which is set to star Tom Hardy in the title role.
The fact that Carnage is making an appearance in Venom may be news, but it's hardly surprising. The news that Sony is working on both the Venom movie and Silver & Black shows that they're not wasting much time in building out the larger Spider-man universe, so it was really only a matter of time before Carnage showed up.
In the comics, the alien symbiote that fused with Eddie Brock to form Venom breaks Brock out of prison at one point, inadvertently leaving behind an offspring. That offspring then fuses with Brock's cellmate Cletus Kasady. Kassidy is a serial killer and sadist, making their combined entity, Carnage, several times more violent and dangerous than even Venom.
While Venom himself started his comic book life as a villain, he's become more of an anti-hero these days, and if that's the plan for the character in the new movie, it makes sense that Carnage is the villain for the film. While Eddie Brock, may be a criminal, he isn't without morality, Carnage is a psychopath. The fact that the origin story of Carnage is closely linked to that of Venom makes him the obvious choice for a villain in the film. Many comic book movies make similar choices for their bad guys in origin stories because it allows for setting up an antagonist easily so the story can still do all the necessary character building for their lead. That's likely what's happening here as well.
Originally, it appeared that the plan for the extended Spider-Man universe might not actually include Spider-Man, but recent comments by Amy Pascal have indicated that Tom Holland's wall-crawler is the Spider-Man in this world, and thus he could appear in these spinoff films. THR specifically states that Holland's contract only requires him to appear in the MCU Spider-Man sequels, following Spider-Man: Homecoming next month, but the option is apparently open for him to reprise his role in these other films.
With the casting of Tom Hardy as Venom out of the way, we'd expect the casting of Carnage is currently under consideration. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend and we'll bring you that news as soon as have it.
