When Sony and Marvel brokered a deal to allow Spider-Man to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the floodgates opened.
On one side of the fence, Marvel Studios quickly locked down Tom Holland for a standalone trilogy revolving around the Web-Head, and that’s a contract that includes a handful of appearances in the MCU’s big-name crossovers (see: Civil War and next year’s Avengers: Infinity War). For Sony, the Powers That Be made the headlines through the casting of Tom Hardy, star of Mad Max and Peaky Blinders, as Eddie Brock, one of the unfortunate (fortunate?) sods who winds up wrangling the Venom symbiote under control.
Toss in a director in Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) along with the possibility of an R-rating and it’s small wonder why Venom has generated so much attention across the industry. Now, it would seem as if production is officially underway, as the film’s Twitter account has posted the first photo – which came accompanied with the caption “Day 1.” Check it out in the gallery below along with some awesome fan-art.
As you can see, this is hardly the most exciting pic, as it’s simply a behind the scenes shot featuring Tom Hardy and two unknown individuals, likely making plans for the upcoming spinoff. Still, it signals that the gears have begun to turn and presumably, we can expect to see more from the production over the coming weeks. Hopefully that includes a look at Hardy in costume, as that’s what everyone’s really eager for.
That being said, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Spider-Man won’t be involved here. Given that this is a Sony Pictures production, and not one that hails from Marvel, Peter Parker won’t factor into things and Venom is going to stand separate from the MCU, instead taking place in Sony’s own Marvel universe. It’s an odd decision, to be sure, and one that has most people feeling a bit apprehensive about the project.
Still, there’s no denying that Tom Hardy is a hugely exciting choice to play the character and given that he’s a tremendously talented individual, we’re able to remain cautiously optimistic that the spinoff will find success, even despite being removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Sony Pictures has a long way to go if it’s to ever compete with Marvel, of course – thanks to Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s blistering success, the MCU is now at $12 billion and counting – but the studio’s own Spidey universe is all set to kick off with the launch of Venom on October 5th, 2018. Other projects in the mix include Silver & Black, along with spinoff movies featuring Kraven and Mysterio.