After Venom 3 Revealed Its First Look At Knull, The Villain’s Co-Creator Dropped A Tease That Has Me Hyped For The Sequel

There are a number of reasons for fans to be excited about the upcoming Venom movie, Venom: The Last Dance. From what we understand, this will be Tom Hardy’s final appearance as Eddie Brock, and the alien symbiote that attached itself to him back in the initial Venom. And based on the recent trailer that dropped, Venom: The Last Dance is going to dig deeper into Venom’s alien origin, including a look at the symbiote’s creator, Knull. Well, after the appearance of Knull in the trailer, the character’s co-creator Donny Cates took to social media to voice his support, and his words have got me fired up for the villain’s treatment in the sequel.

Let’s use the comics to fill in some of the gaps. Knull is a god who created the symbiotes after the Celestials (introduced in Eternals in the MCU) invaded his kingdom. He shaped the first symbiote into a sword, which he used to decapitate a Celestial. Then he used that being’s head to increase his power, establish a dark void, and plug himself into the nexus of a Hive. Some of that was hinted at in the final trailer for Venom: The Last Dance.

Here’s a shot of the Hive:

The Venom hive in Venom: The Last Dance — (Image credit: Sony Pictures)

But some Venom fans joked that, knowing Sony, the shot of Knull from the trailer could be a post-credit scene for a movie that won’t ever receive a payoff. Like Michael Morbius (Jared Leo) meeting Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), or the piece of symbiote being left in the MCU at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, after the trailer, comic writer Donny Cates, who helped to create Knull in the Venom books, teased fans with the promise of what’s to come in Venom: The Last Dance. He shared:

Also, I’ve been talking with Sony and I read a script for #VenomTheLastDance, and I’ll say this; it is so much bigger, and so much more ambitious than you can imagine. And, um….KNULL. Holy shit. That’s how you treat a king. Happy Birthday to me.See you at @NY_Comic_Con ;)September 14, 2024

And now I’m a lot more confident in how Venom: The Last Dance is going to handle Knull, a villain so vicious that he once earned the nickname King in Black. Seriously, that’s so badass. In addition, Donny Cates expanded that we can expect a fight scene between Venom and Knull when he Tweeted:

Okay, bottom line: I turn 40 today and there’s a movie being made where a character that @RyanStegman and I created is fighting a character @Todd_McFarlane created. And, guess what? Everything else aside… nothing is going to rob me of thinking that’s fucking rad.September 14, 2024

This is more than enough to get me hyped for the third and final Venom movie. Tom Hardy’s franchise has developed the mythology around the symbiote, introducing Venom’s primary antagonist in Carnage, and now it will close out the series with an exploration of the planet from which Venom originated. It’s still not quite a crossover with Spider-Man, which is something that fans have been begging for, and Hardy has been teasing. But now that a drop of symbiote has been left in the MCU, perhaps an upcoming Spider-Man movie can pick up that thread – or goo – and tug on it.

Look for Venom: The Last Dance in theaters beginning on October 25.

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Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.