Comic book villain veteran Tom Hardy is going darker as Sony spins a Spider-Verse spinoff.
Sony revealed via Twitter Hardy will play Eddie Brock in a Venom film slated for October 5, 2018 with production starting in the fall. The actor sported a t-shirt featuring the villain, and a shaved head in a photo on the post.
Hardy played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises for Christopher Nolan. After playing the DC Comics rogue that broke Batman, Hardy is making his Marvel as a sinister Spidey foe.
In comics Eddie Brock was a freelancer obsessed with unmasking Spider-Man, who at the time was in the black costume. The dark costume was actually an alien symbiote that bonded with Peter Parker. Brock’s career was trashed when Parker/Spider-Man debunked his stories. When Parker was able separate himself from the alien costume, Brock was watching. Brock bonded with the symbiote and Venom was born.
Venom later became an anti-hero. Peter Parker’s high school rival Flash Thompson grew up to join the army and later bonded with the symbiote as the government’s Agent Venom, a covert operative.
When Brock was in prison the symbiote has an “offspring” which bonded with a serial killer named Cletus Kassidy. The two became Carnage, a villain of Spidey and Venom.
Sony and Marvel reached an agreement to share the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Tom Holland played Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time in Captain America: Civil War. Holland returns as Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 7.
No word on the plot of the film.
Topher Grace played Brock in Spider-Man 3 directed by Sam Raimi.
Venom will be directed by Ruben Fleisher (Zombieland).
By Editor