A fun retro trailer has arrived for Wal-Mart's exclusive Venom action figure, which is available to those who buy a Blu-ray copy of the movie. A solo Venom movie has been a long time coming. The first attempt was back in 1997 when David S. Goyer – screenwriter of Man Of Steel and The Dark Knight – was hired to pen a script. This project had no ties to Spider-Man, with Venom’s own spider symbol being explained by the fact he came from a planet populated by giant spiders. Dolph Lundgren was tipped for the title role, but the project didn’t ultimately move forward.

Sony then considered a Venom movie to follow the character’s live-action debut in 2007's Spider-Man 3, but following a backlash to how the movie portrayed Venom, the movie was scrapped. Venom was also supposed to play a big role in The Amazing Spider-Man shared universe, with Channing Tatum campaigning for the part. Those well-laid plans came undone when Marvel and Sony signed a deal to share Spider-Man, leading to Tom Holland taking over as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War.

The character finally landed his own movie with Venom, starring Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams. While the film wasn’t exactly showered with praise by critics it struck a chord with audiences and would go on to gross over $850 million worldwide. Now Sony has released a throwback trailer to announce the arrival of a Venom action figure, which is available exclusively to those who buy a Blu-ray copy of the movie from Wal-Mart.


Surprisingly, Hasbro opted not to produce a line of toys to tie in with Venom’s release. Hasbro apparently wasn’t sure what the response to the movie would be, but considering the film’s worldwide success, that’s probably a business decision they regret. When Venom was first announced it was believed the movie would be a dark, R-rated adventure, with comments from the cast and crew seemingly confirming this. It was something of a surprise to learn prior to release the movie was actually aiming for a PG-13, but while some fans were disappointed with this news, it doesn’t appear to have hurt the movie’s profitability.

Sony is now planning a shared universe based around Spider-Man villains, with Jared Leto’s Morbius next in line, followed by Venom 2. Venom screenwriter Jeff Pinker also recently teased a future crossover between the character and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man wasn’t out of the question.