According to The Hollywood Reporter, Academy Award nominee and all around cool person Naomie Harris has joined the cast of Venom 2, sequel to 2018’s surprise (at least to me) hit Venom. Tapped to play the villainous Shriek, Harris’ character will come to blows with Tom Hardy’s Venom/Eddie Brock.
A lesser known villain in the Spider-Man world, Shriek is the companion of Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage (Woody Harrelson), a villain introduced in the post-credits scene for Venom. Harris’ addition all but confirms Venom 2 will focus on the “Maximum Carnage” storyline from the Spider-Man comics of the 1990s, but it still has us asking all sorts of questions.
For those unfamiliar with your ’90s Spider-Man lore, Shriek and Carnage began a reign of terror in New York City that forced longtime foes Venom and Spider-Man — among several other characters — to team up in order to bring the bloodshed to an end. Shriek, in addition to more traditional sonic/sound based powers, also had the ability to subsonically incite rage and fury in those around her, turning innocent people into mobs of murderous psychopaths. Carnage by himself was always more powerful than Venom, but both characters’ symbiotes were uniquely vulnerable to Shriek’s sound-based powers.
Venom and Spider-Man’s team up was a key point of “Maximum Carnage” and came after years of the two fighting against one another. With Sony and Marvel having resolved their little custody dispute over use of the character, there’s been talk of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man appearing alongside Hardy’s Venom in a future movie. Is this what they were talking about?
Photo: Venom (2018).. Image Courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment — Tom Holland is Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures’ SPIDER-MAN: ™ FAR FROM HOME.
Venom 2 is directed by Andy Serkis, who’s directed movies like Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle but who remains best known for playing Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Venom 2 is currently set for a late 2020 release date.
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