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Venom 2 Director Reveals How Far Into Filming Marvel/Sony Sequel Is
Andy Serkis has provided an update on Venom 2, revealing he's well into filming on the Marvel/Sony sequel. Thanks to the box office success of the first Venom (which grossed $856 million worldwide), Sony is moving forward with plans to make its Spider-Man villain movies part of the MCU. The trailer for July's Morbius has already confirmed the Jared Leto-led spinoff takes place in the MCU, with Michael Keaton reprising his Homecoming role as Vulture and Morbius walking by graffiti of Spider-Man in the footage. Sony's upcoming Venom 2 is expected to further build on that foundation, with Tom Holland potentially cameoing as Peter Parker (per the rumor mill, anyway).
Tom Hardy is reprising his role as Eddie Brock for the Venom sequel, with Michelle Williams and Woody Harrelson also returning as Eddie's ex-girlfriend Anne Weying and the serial killer Cletus Kasady (building on the Carnage tease in the first movie's post-credits scene). Hardy took to social media to confirm filming on Venom 2 was underway last November, but deleted his post shortly after. Thankfully, Serkis - who signed on to direct last summer - has since come out and confirmed he's far along into shooting on the film by now.
Speaking to Digital Spy and other press members at the EE British Academy Film Awards, Serkis confirmed he's 40 days into filming on Venom 2, describing it as "really thrilling". The actor-filmmaker was naturally tight-lipped about the sequel beyond that, though he did tease the story by Venom co-writer Kelly Marcel will "see a deepening of the relationship between [Eddie Brock] and obviously there's a nemesis character and... that's all I can say."
Venom 2 being (nearly) six weeks into shooting by now means the film may yet manage to make the October 2, 2020 release date Sony's been holding onto for an untitled Marvel film. It's always been assumed the date was claimed for the Venom sequel, but the lack of firm updates over the last two months raised doubts about it being ready in time. That's still a rapid turn-around between the start of photography and Venom 2 hitting theaters (about ten and a half months), much like the production timeline for Sony's Jumanji: The Next Level last year. And while that film was ultimately a critical and commercial success, it was also noticeably rough around the edges in terms of its editing and pacing.
The Venom sequel will also have pretty intense CGI demands, between Venom himself, Carnage (the "nemesis" Serkis mentioned, presumably) and, reportedly, Naomie Harris as Kasady's love interest Shriek. Fortunately, Serkis had a lot of experience with effects-heavy shoots going into Venom 2, having served as a second unit director on The Hobbit trilogy and helmed Netflix's Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. Venom wasn't exactly beloved by critics either (the opposite, in fact), so its followup admittedly doesn't have all that high a bar to clear. Even so, here's hoping Venom 2 isn't rushing to its doom as its continues to barrel towards its prospective Fall 2020 launch pad.
Morbius (2020)
Release Date: Jul 31, 2020
Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 (2021)
Release Date: Jul 16, 2021
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2 (2022)
Release Date: Apr 08, 2022
