It’s official: Andy Serkis is on board to direct Venom 2, with the news arriving less than a week after rumors of him meeting with Sony about the job first surfaced. Serkis is succeeding Venom’s Ruben Fleischer, who was unable to return for the sequel because he was busy with Zombieland: Double Tap, and when asked what excites him most about helming Venom 2, here’s what Serkis had to say:
The fact that it's Tom Hardy playing Venom is everything, really. You know, he's already created an extraordinary tension between himself and the character of Venom, and that's what we want to really mine in the next story. But I can't say too much about that.
CinemaBlend’s own Nick Venable recently spoke with Andy Serkis at TCA about his upcoming FX miniseries A Christmas Carol, which is being written and executive produced by Steven Knight, and directed by Nick Murphy. Naturally, though, the conversation shifted briefly to Venom 2 given yesterday’s big news.
While Andy Serkis can’t say too much about the sequel given that it’s still early into the development process, he took the opportunity to shower Tom Hardy with praise about what he did with the Eddie Brock/Venom dynamic in last year’s Venom. That was a big selling point for Serkis coming aboard, and he intends to keep highlighting the tension between Eddie and the symbiote for their next cinematic adventure.
But Andy Serkis isn’t just collaborating with Tom Hardy in the usual actor/director manner for Venom 2. Serkis also revealed to Gamespot that Hardy is helping craft the story with him and writer Kelly Marcel. Whether their efforts result in a movie that’s more critically well received than its predecessor remains to be seen, but judging by Serkis’ comments, it sounds like this stage of the creative process is off to a solid start.
Venom 2 is Andy Serkis’ third directorial endeavor. He kicked off this portion of his career with 2017’s Breathe and followed that up with Mowgli: The Legend of the Jungle, which was originally intended to be a Warner Bros release, but was later moved to Netflix. Serkis also served as the second unit director on The Hobbit trilogy.
Of course, most people know Andy Serkis best from his acting work, particularly motion capture roles like Gollum, Caesar and Snoke. It remains to be seen if Serkis will also play a character in Venom 2, but if he does, don’t be surprised if rather than bringing life to some CGI creation, he instead appears as a normal-looking human, like he did in his last superhero movie, Black Panther.
No specific Venom 2 plot details have been revealed yet, but the Venom mid-credits scene introduced Cletus Kasady, and Woody Harrelson is signed on to reprise the serial killer, so expect for him to become Carnage. Venom 2 will also bring back Michelle Williams as Ann Weying, a San Francisco district attorney and Eddie Brock’s ex-fiancée.
Venom 2 is expected to be released in theaters on October 2, 2020, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on how it’s coming along. In the meantime, keep up to date with this year’s movies with our 2019 release schedule.
