The release-date shuffle continues in Hollywood, though based on the positive numbers posted this weekend for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, for once, a movie is moving forward. Encouraged by the figures that they saw over the weekend enjoyed by Disney and Marvel Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment today revealed that its comic-book blockbuster, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is moving ahead by two weeks to October 1.
Andy Serkis’ upcoming sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage has suffered a slew of release-date switches, with its most recent coming only a few weeks ago when the movie moved out of late September and back to October 15. However, the momentum shown by Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings over the Labor Day weekend apparently convinced the studio to shift the Venom sequel once again and get it into theaters earlier, much to the delight of fans. They also revealed when you can get advanced tickets, via this Tweet:
This likely means that Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures have no plans to move Spider-Man: No Way Home out of December and into 2022, a rumor that was swirling around but now seems unlikely, as the studios seem confident that audiences will return to theaters for big-ticket properties. Granted, that’s all tenuous and can change depending on the state of the nation and the health and safety of our citizens. But with mask mandates and vaccination rates increasing, movie theaters may start to see audience figures tick up.
Back to Venom: Let There Be Carnage for a moment. Fans of the original film have been waiting patiently for this movie to finally make it to theaters, continuing the oddball symbiotic relationship between reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his alien partner. In this sequel, they’ll face off against the psychotic Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) and his alien counterpart, Carnage. And audiences will find out how a symbiote reacts when it has a lunatic as a host.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage might have connections to the MCU, or it could set up Jared Leto’s upcoming movie Morbius, which is part of Sony’s Spider-Man universe (that doesn’t quite have Spider-Man in it yet). We did see how the Morbius trailer had graffiti of Spider-Man -- the Sam Raimi Spider-Man, too -- on a wall that Michael Morbius (Leto) walked past. And Michael Keaton showed up, but is he really Adrian Toomes? The actor wouldn’t say when we asked him.
Hopefully more of the studio’s plans will crystalize when Venom: Let There Be Carnage arrives in theaters. And now, thanks to the success of Shang-Chi, that release date will happen two weeks earlier than we had planned. For the rest of the year’s anticipated releases, check out out guide to Upcoming Movies and stay up to date on all the changing, well, dates.
