Eddie Brock and Venom have proved to be an unstoppable force between 2018’s Venom and 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, each becoming big commercial successes. It's been over half a year since the sequel came out, and we’ve finally heard about the future of the rambunctious symbiote, a.k.a. Venom 3, from none other than Tom Hardy.
The star of the Venom movies took to his Instagram on Thursday to share a single image that appears to show that the third entry in this corner of Sony's Spider-Man Univese is taking a big step forward. Check it:
The post looks to be the front page of the Venom 3 script, with a rough image of the character alongside “3” in red writing. It says the story is by Tom Hardy and Kelly Marcel, who previously were partners on the story for the previous Venom movie. Marcel has been credited solely for writing the script for the upcoming Venom movie after additionally having her name on the the previous two installments, along with Saving Mr. Banks, Fifty Shades of Grey and working on the story for Cruella.
Tom Hardy released the image without a caption and turned off the comments on the social media platform, but we can certainly gather from the post that a script is either well on the way or finished for Venom 3. This comes eight months after Venom: Let There Be Carnage hit theaters and became one of the most successful movies of the year, positioning itself at #7 among 2021’s top worldwide-grossing movies.
That said, Let There Be Carnage wasn’t exactly beloved by critics, including CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg (who gave the movie a two out of five stars, recommending audiences just “skip it all together”). Still, considering the over $500 million in box office dollars and overall positive reactions from fans, the Venom franchise has dodged criticism affecting its success.
Back in October, Tom Hardy shared that the possibility of Venom 3 would rely on the success of Let There Be Carnage, and Andy Serkis’ sequel cleared the bar. With Kelly Marcel apparently taking full reins for Venom 3, we’d imagine the movie will continue to find the same ridiculous, funny and offbeat tone that the other movies had.
The Venom movies feed into Sony’s intentions to build out the Spider-Verse apart from the MCU and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. In the end-credit scene for Let There Be Carnage, Venom finally connected to Spider-Man when he entered the MCU, but No Way Home made that interweaving perhaps brief.
Venom 3 does not have a release date yet, but there’s plenty of upcoming Marvel movies to look forward to in the meantime. The Sony Spider-Verse is set to expand in the near future, as we expect the Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web movies in 2023, and the Bad Bunny-led El Muerto in 2024.
