Sony is moving forward with a sequel to Venom and has found its writer. The studio had great success in giving the fan-favorite, symbiotic Marvel anti-hero his own movie with Tom Hardy leading the way as Eddie Brock. Despite a critical lashing and no Spider-Man connections, Venom is a certified box office success.
The first film has made over $850 million worldwide at the box office and made it clear that this would not be the lone installment of the franchise. Sony previously has already been making moves to expand the Venom-verse with Jared Leto's Morbius movie picking up steam. While securing a presumable release date for the vampire flick in 2020, they also locked down an October 2020 release date for an unannounced sequel. It was widely believed to be Venom 2, and the movie is officially a go.
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Variety reports that Sony has brought back screenwriter Kelly Marcel to write the script for Venom's sequel. She joined the original film late in the process to do a rewrite and will be the head writer this time around and also serve as an executive producer. Tom Hardy will return as the anti-hero, as will Michelle Williams as Anne Weying and Woody Harrelson as Carnage. Director Ruben Fleischer may not return however due to an overlapping schedule with Zombieland 2.
Marcel's other credits prior to Venom are Saving Mr. Banks and Fifty Shades of Grey, while she also helped write the script for Disney's upcoming Cruella starring Emma Stone. Her return here for the sequel should make it more likely that the second installment maintains the tone of the first film, which could be for better or worse depending on one's view of Venom.
However, there could be some room for change if Fleischer does indeed not direct the sequel. Sony clearly wants to move quickly on Venom 2, but he should only be tied up with Zombieland 2 up until this October. The first film started production and hit theaters in roughly a year time span, so it may still be possible for him to return if Venom 2 operates on a similar schedule. If he cannot return, then another director will be able to step in and continue the franchise forward with the story Marcel set up and will continue to tell.
Although this may be the first concrete piece of news about Venom 2 happening, we already have a general idea of what the movie will be about. Carnage is going to be the big villain of the film to make good on the previous installment's post-credits tease. The return of Weying could provide more symbiote madness too after she also briefly became She-Venom in the first film and could do so in a larger capacity in the sequel. Plus, there's no telling what other new characters the sequel could include or the connections it could make with other films. Either way, Venom's sequel is officially happening.
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Source: Variety