Variety brings word today that Michelle Williams, star of last year’s festival darling Manchester by the Sea, is negotiating for a role in Sony’s Venom spinoff.
Should a deal place, she’d star opposite Tom Hardy and Riz Ahmed, who is attached to play a “major Marvel character” (Carnage, perhaps?) in the 2018 actioner. Ruben Fleischer of Zombieland fame will be calling the shots from behind the lens, and though Sony declined to comment, we assume Michelle Williams is testing for the part of Anne Weying, ex-wife to Eddie Brock (Hardy).
In the original comics, Weying was left paralyzed by the all-powerful Sin Eater, later wrangling the Venom symbiote under control to become She-Venom. If true, it would align with those early story rumors that claimed Fleischer’s standalone pic would feature not one, but two symbiote hosts. Chalk that up as conjecture for now, though, as Sony is playing its cards close to the vest when it comes to Venom and its newly-unveiled Marvel universe.
The only other details released thus far concern Silver and Black, Sony’s other Spider-Man spinoff movie that’s coming by way of director Gina Prince-Bythewood.
Getting back to Venom, though, and it would seem the Powers That Be really did delay production in order to finalize the film’s cast. And make no mistake, Michelle Williams would undoubtedly be a major coup for the studio, as the actress tends to fill her slate with awards-friendly material in the vein of Todd Haynes drama Wonderstruck and The Greatest Showman, both of which will be with us before the year’s end.
Story-wise, the Eddie Brock solo movie has a script from Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, who recently dabbled with rip-roaring adventure thanks to their contribution to the Dwayne Johnson-led yarn, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
Venom will claw its way into theaters on October 5th, 2018.