Our last image – the lasting image – of Woody Harrelson as psychopath Cletus Kasady in Venom was dominated by a clownish wig. Granted, Kletus is meant to have crazy red hair, but it didn’t fit Harrelson at all. And the memes flowed.
Perhaps, in an effort to counterbalance that negativity, Tom Hardy has taken to Instagram during the production of Venom 2 to share the first look at Harrelson in the sequel. Under the caption, “Hello Cletus,” Hardy shared this surprising take on Marvel’s craziest antagonist, Carnage:
No wig! That’s what hits us, immediately. Woody Harrelson seems to have shaved the goofy clown wig, and while there’s a red tint to the hair that we can notice, it’s cropped closer to his skull, which already is a VAST improvement over this:
Yikes! Granted, some changes have happened behind the scenes, which have us excited for Venom 2. Ruben Fleischer helped get Venom off of the ground over at Sony, but Andy Serkis has shifted into the director’s chair for Venom 2, and that’s an intriguing shift. Serkis is a wizard at motion-capture, having mastered it for the Lord of the Rings, Hobbit and Planet of the Apes series. Serkis has bene studying under masters for years now, and we can’t wait to see what he brings to the characters of Venom and Carnage.
Based on Marvel’s comics, there are so many places that Venom 2 can go, storywise. It can be an adaptation of Maximum Carnage, similar to the way that Venom was a loose adaptation of Lethal Protector. But it always circles around to the fact that Sony doesn’t yet have the ability to use Spider-Man in a movie … which makes telling these stories all the more difficult.
But there have been indications that Spider-Man might be making his way over to the Sony side of the equation. In the trailer for Jared Leto’s upcoming Morbius, we saw Spider-Man graffiti on the wall in a shot. And Sony recently announced a new Sony/Marvel title for 2021, leading to all sorts of speculation.
But it’s clear that Sony is going to impressive lengths to develop this side of the Spider-verse, in hopes of probably bringing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man into the fold in time. There’s talk of a Kraven the Hunter film, as well as a team up of Silver Sable and Black Cat. There have been rumors for ages of a Sinister Six movie that could use all of these villains.
For now, though, we just have to wait and see what Venom 2 has to offer late this year. And to keep up with all of the movies opening in theaters in 2020, bookmark our calendar and check it often.
