The spider-themed corner of the superhero genre is going to expand in a truly bizarre way later this year when Ruben Fleischer's Venom debuts this October. The film will introduce Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock to the world, and Woody Harrelson will also appear as an unconfirmed mystery character. That's some hefty star power, but we shouldn't expect to see too much of him in this film because he's mostly setup for the sequel. In a recent interview, the Solo: A Star Wars Story actor opened up about reteaming with his Zombieland director and explained:
Roll of the dice, because I'm just... I'm in a little fraction of this movie, but I'll be in the next one, you know? So I haven't read that script, but anyways, just rolled the dice.
So while it seems that we will definitely see Woody Harrelson in Venom, we shouldn't hold out hope to see him play a significant role in the narrative. Per the actor's recent comments in an interview with Collider, he will only play a small part of the bigger narrative, and that will apparently lead to a more significant role in the second Venom movie.
That development kind of makes a lot of sense when we look at the number of plates Venom will have to keep spinning. Not only does the movie have to introduce the world to a new version of Eddie Brock and a new incarnation of the symbiote, but it will also reportedly adapt multiple Venom comics -- specifically Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes. Couple all of that with the film's tenuous connections to a bigger Marvel narrative and the vague information about possible Spider-Man appearances, and it becomes fairly clear that using Woody Harrelson sparingly could stand out as an easy choice.
Venom centers its story on investigative journalist Eddie Brock, who finds himself fused with an alien symbiote that grants him superpowers and a nasty case of split personality. In his attempts to control the symbiote's violent side, he commits himself to becoming an anti-hero and taking on bad guys who actually deserve it. As far as Woody Harrelson's role in the film is concerned, some rumors have suggested that he may be playing Cletus Kasady a.k.a Carnage (think Venom with a dash of The Joker thrown in for good measure), but it's now looking like Harrelson won't have a huge role in the first installment of this series regardless.
Woody Harrelson will make his debut in Venom (regardless of whether or not he's actually portraying Cletus Kasady) when Eddie Brock's solo movie premieres later this year on October 5. Make sure to stay tuned for more updates related to the upcoming Spidey spinoff, and you can also currently catch Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett in Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is now in theaters.
