A strange, and fairly unpredictable, thing happened as “Venom” was released in theaters back in October. Sure, comic book fans ate it up, as expected. But there is a significant amount of fans that read between the lines a bit more than your average filmgoer and noticed that running throughout the superhero film is a love story. But not the one you expected. You see, many saw the box office hit as a romance between Eddie Brock and the symbiote living inside him. And now, Sony is using that to help market the upcoming Blu-ray release.


If you do a Google search for “Venom shipping,” you’ll notice something really interesting. As mentioned, the Sony superhero film has developed this cult following in the LGBTQ community of fans that are obsessed with “shipping” Venom with Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy. “Shipping,” of course, is the slang term for pairing them together as romantic love interests. Some even call “Venom” the first true queer-friendly superhero film.

And in honor of this unlikely pairing, Sony has released a tongue-in-cheek trailer for the upcoming home release of “Venom,” offering a holiday love story for the ages. It’s amazing how a film’s story and tone can be completely turned on its head with the right music, clever editing, and title cards ripped straight from “Love, Actually” or any other holiday rom-com. And you know what? It really works.

At The Playlist, we have debated the shortcomings of this film quite a bit. (I still say it’s dumb fun, even though I hate using the term “dumb fun” for films. But nevertheless, the term is appropriate here.) But this new trailer might be just the thing to turn those “Venom” haters into converts, as it really could be seen as the great love story of 2018.

Move over Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, “Venom” is here to steal hearts all around the world. And if the recent box office news is any indicator, fans are ready for some serious symbiote/human love.