‘Venom’ Creators Promise ‘Huge World,’ Tease Spider-Man Fight

This isn’t your friendly neighborhood web spinner.


“Venom” director Ruben Fleischer and star Tom Hardy promised the crowd at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday that there will be plenty of bloodletting in the upcoming comic-book adaptation.


Instead of the typical costumed heroes synonymous with the superhero genre, this film will feature a “much grittier, grounded, complicated character,” said Fleischer, who added it will be “more violent” than other Marvel movies.


“There’s no heroes in this movie,” he said.


And the footage that Fleischer and company took to Southern California didn’t disappoint. It feature Eddie Brock, a mischievous journalist who is hosting an alien symbiote, suffering from violent visions. When Brock transforms into the lumbering, toothsome arachnid, he develops a taste for flesh, ripping his adversaries into pieces (an R-rating seems guaranteed). At one point, Venom tells a man that he will crush him until he looks “like a legless, faceless turd.”


Hardy said he was drawn to “Venom” because his son is a fan of the comic-book character. He noted that other movies he’s made, such as “The Revenant,” are too intense to share with his offspring. So this time, Hardy quipped, “I did something where I bite people’s heads off.”


Sony has high hopes for “Venom,” which it hopes will kick off an interconnected Spider-verse, similar to what Marvel accomplished with the Avengers. Fleischer hinted that the film will feature other symbiotes from the comic, including “Riot,” a nemesis of Venom who is even more powerful.


“We’re planning a huge world with this Venom story,” said Fleischer, adding that he hoped “to explore all of the beloved characters from the universe.”


Will that mean that Spider-Man will someday face off against Venom? Hardy hopes so, telling the crowd, he’s ready to go toe-to-toe with Spidey’s off-screen alter-ego, Tom Holland.


“I’ll have a go at him,” he said.


“Venom” swings into theatres on Oct. 5.