Riz Ahmed Joins ‘Venom’ With Tom Hardy

It’s not often that studios get a second chance to make a franchise work, but Sony is making the most of their opportunity with Spider-Man. Having successfully teamed with Marvel and relaunched the webslinger with this summer’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” Sony is now embarking on their own universe of villain-focused spinoff movies, which they weren’t able to do following the failure of “The Amazing Spider-Man” films, and first out of the gate will be “Venom” starring Tom Hardy. Landing an actor of his caliber already raised eyebrows, and now the addition of another great performer should draw more attention to the project.

Riz Ahmed (“Nightcrawler,” “The Night Of,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story“) is in talks to join “Venom,” but he won’t be playing Carnage. The actor’s role is being kept under wraps for now, so we’ll just have to wait and see what screenwriters Scott Rosenberg (“Jumanji”) and Jeff Pinkner (“The Dark Tower”) come up with for Ahmed. Behind the camera will be Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland“), who is hoping to get his mojo back after a couple of disappointing features. Certainly, expectations are huge on “Venom,” but it won’t be connected to the Spider-Man films.

“Venom” will open on October 5, 2018. [Variety/THR]