Venom 2 will see Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) face off against his arch-nemesis, the murderous scarlet symbiote Carnage (Woody Harrelson). Carnage is infamous in the comic books for being one of Spider-Man and Venom’s deadliest enemies, almost always wracking up a grim body count whenever he appears.
With the news that Venom 2 is going to be a PG-13 action movie, fans have been wondering if Carnage will be allowed to live up to his horrifying comicbook counterpart. Director Andy Serkis has eased some of those fears, though, in some recently published production notes. “Woody, as Cletus, has a way of turning on a dime and making you feel like you never quite know if he’s going to kiss you or kill you,” Serkis said. “When coupled with Carnage, he’s truly terrifying and a real threat to Venom and Eddie.”
Serkis wasn’t the only one who was bigging up the threat Carnage poses to Eddie and his symbiotic sidekick. “In a world inhabited by a genuinely scary symbiote, there’s another symbiote who is a whole lot meaner, and a whole lot more dangerous, and a whole lot more deadly. He’s the ultimate challenge for Venom and therefore Eddie,” explained producer Matt Tolmach. “Woody was the right person because he’s not only one of the great actors alive, but he’s got a delicious wickedness that is uniquely terrifying.”
Set one year after the first movie’s events, Let There Be Carnage sees Eddie and his symbiote struggling to adapt to their new shared body. As the pair’s relationship breaks down, a new threat arises in the form of Venom’s murderous offspring Carnage, which bonds to psychotic serial killer Cletus Kassady.
In the comic books, Venom alone has never really been a match for Carnage, who boasts all Venom’s powers and more, so it’s going to be very interesting watching how Eddie brings him down. Especially because Carnage isn’t alone, he’ll be joined by his villainous love interest, Shriek (Naomie Harris), who has the power to manipulate sound, one of Venom’s key weaknesses.
Venom: Let there be Carnage swings into theatres in the US on October 1 and two weeks later on October 15 in the UK.