Tom Hardy Is Your New Venom

[thabear04]

One of the more confusing and intriguing recent developments in our ongoing Superhero Boom has been Sony’s development of their own cinematic universe based on Spider-Man characters … but without Spider-Man in it. They own the rights to those figures, but they’re co-producing Spidey sagas set in the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, so the webslinger himself can’t be part of a new, self-contained mythology at Sony. They’re doing the next-best thing by having their own little world that centers around longtime Spider-Man supporting player Venom, and word has come down today that Tom Hardy will be playing him (and his alter ego, Eddie Brock) in 2018’s eponymous Venom. Ruben Fleischer of Zombieland will be directing. This will be Hardy’s return to the superhero genre after his muffled turn as Bane in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, and it’s certainly a coup for Sony to grab such a beloved star, but the question remains: Will people see a Spider-flick that doesn’t have the original wall-crawler in it? If anyone can do it, it’s Tom, who is bald now:

Tom Hardy is Eddie Brock in #Venom, the upcoming film from Sony’s Marvel Universe releasing October 5, 2018 – production starts this fall. pic.twitter.com/OZQqDEvoum

— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) May 19, 2017