Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady? It’s certainly not out of the question.
Last month, we heard that Harrelson, star of True Detective and The Hunger Games, had been tipped to play the villainous Carnage in Ruben Fleischer’s upcoming Venom spinoff, which recently gave us a pretty awesome trailer.
It was a rumor that was met with a great deal of suspicion right out of the gate, as many had assumed that the role of Cletus Kasady, Eddie Brock’s one true nemesis, belonged to The Night Of star Riz Ahmed. Alas, there’s been nary a mention of an official announcement from Sony, but thanks to a recent interview with Collider, Harrelson himself may have just let slip that he is indeed playing Carnage.
When asked about his role in the pic, here’s what the actor said:
I’m in a little fraction of this movie, but I’ll be in the next one, you know? So I haven’t read that script, but anyways, just rolled the dice.
Minor spoilers to follow…
While Harrelson doesn’t confirm anything outright, it’s easy to read between the lines here. We’ve already heard that Kasady won’t feature in the main narrative of Venom and will instead be held back until the post-credits scene, obviously teasing his major appearance in the hoped-for sequel.
From what we understand, the tag will apparently be set in jail, with Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock encountering Kasady behind bars. Couple that with the actor’s comments to Collider and it pretty much confirms that he’ll be the one bringing Carnage to life. Or at least, it sure seems like it.
We likely won’t find out for certain if that’s the case until this October, but if one thing’s for sure, it’s that Tom Hardy will be pulling double duty on Sony’s offshoot, given the British actor lends his voice to both Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote gnawing away at his subconscious. It tees up a pretty complex dynamic for Hardy’s lead, though the actor has long proven his scenery-chewing talent thanks to The Dark Knight Rises, The Revenant and Legend, in which he plays both Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
Meanwhile, Sony and Ruben Fleischer plan to unleash Venom on October 5th.