People love Spider-Man. His movies are a hit, he’s a popular member of the Avengers, and even his villains can headline their own hugely successful movies. Such was the case with Venom, which last year became a surprise box office smash despite drubbing from critics. Speaking to Fandom about what he would change about the movie if he could, director Ruben Fleischer sounds like he’s still upset about that:
"If anything, I would have changed the critics’ reaction to it. I was really bummed that people didn’t like it because it’s a crowdpleasing movie and I’m not sure if there was just blowback against Sony or people just worship Marvel. But I was really surprised that the critics [were gunning for it] because audiences really enjoyed the movie. And so many people who’ve seen it just appreciated that it was a fun superhero movie. So I was a little surprised. I don’t know what they were expecting."
I’m guessing they were expecting movies that didn’t have lines like this?
Butthurt aside, Fleischer was “happy” to let director Andy Serkis take over for the forthcoming sequel, which will again feature Tom Hardy returning as Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who merges with a violent “symbiote” from beyond the stars to become the movie’s titular character. Also coming back is Woody Harrelson as Carnage, who’s so extreme and vicious that he makes Venom look like Captain America.
Really, only against someone like Carnage could Venom be called a “good guy.” While he’s the “hero” of this particular film series, he’s most famous as a member of Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery. With Tom Holland as the most profitable onscreen Spider-Man in history and people hungry for more of Hardy’s Venom, will these two ever clash on the big screen? Fleischer certainly sounds like he thinks it’ll happen:
"That’s where it’s all going to lead. And that’s the exciting thing, because we changed the origin of Venom … in the comics, he evolved from Spider-Man but because of the Marvel-Sony thing we weren’t able to that. And so the thing I think it’s building towards, and will be exciting to see, is when they actually do confront each other."
Indeed, in the comics, Peter Parker is exposed to the symbiote first, and then Brock picks it up after Parker sheds it. That’s basically what happened in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 back in 2007, but we don’t like to talk about that movie if we can avoid it.
It’s interesting that that Fleischer cites “the Marvel-Sony” thing as the reason Venom couldn’t depict the character’s canonical origin. The relationship between the two companies is complicated. Basically, Sony owns the films rights to all the Spider-Man characters, but lends Spider-Man out to Marvel so he can appear in Avengers movies in return for Marvel CEO Kevin Feige helping to produce solo Spider-Man movies at Sony. So far, everyone has prospered from the arrangement, with the two studios recently renegotiating a new joint custody deal. Maybe Marvel didn’t want Sony to feature Venom’s comic book origin because it would have interfered with their plans for Spider-Man in the MCU?
In any case, if I were Sony, I would get Spider-Man and Venom onscreen together as soon as I could. Although it’s unclear if Fleischer is talking about plans for the Venom sequel or ideas the studio has for further in the future.
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