Ever since the first day that Sony announced plans to begin development on a “Venom” standalone film, fans were asking the question, “Will Spider-Man show up?” At first, it seemed like it could happen, as Sony controls the live-action rights to the character and distributes the films based on Marvel’s most popular superhero. However, then when the deal was made with Marvel Studios, allowing Tom Holland’s character to interact with the Avengers, it felt as if there’s no way for the world of “Venom” to interact with Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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And that was further evidenced by the fact that the character of Venom has been drastically changed from his comic book origins. He’s no longer an alien lifeform that bonds to Peter Parker and then eventually Eddie Brock. In the film, the symbiote is man-made (from what we can gather) and bonds directly to Brock, bypassing the Spider-Man part of the origin completely.
All that being said, “Venom” director Ruben Fleischer still won’t say whether or not Spidey shows up in the upcoming film. “I honestly don’t know what I’m allowed to say,” he said in a new interview with the LA Times. “I mean, I know the answer — I’ve seen the movie. But I don’t want to get in trouble for saying something I’m not supposed to.”
While it’s refreshing to hear that the director is allowed to say that he’s seen the film, it’s odd that he can’t confirm what isn’t in the film. Would he have to say the same thing about Captain America or Iron Man? Honestly, it sounds as if the Sony mandate is to tease Spider-Man enough that fans could potentially expect him to show up. However, the studio knows full well that there’s no Spidey to speak of. Sneaky, sneaky Sony.
One thing that Fleischer can talk about is how “Venom” differs from the major superhero universes of our time, the aforementioned MCU and the struggling-to-stay-relevant DCEU (or whatever they’re calling it nowadays).
“I feel like the casting, the aesthetic and the character himself all combine to make something that just feels different,” he said. “Tonally it doesn’t remind you of other movies. It doesn’t feel like we just tried to do what everyone else is doing…. The DC universe is so aggressively dark and the Marvel universe has become so light. It was kind of exciting to craft something that just felt a little bit more real and grounded and in our world.”
Not to throw shade at “Venom,” but this also feels a bit…odd. From the latest trailer for the film, it appears that the upcoming anti-hero film is dark, and edgy, enough to make Zack Snyder be like “Whoa, that’s badass!” But I guess you can say there is levity and “jokes,” such as the infamous “turd in the wind” monologue.
As for some concrete news on the film, we do know that rapper Eminem has contributed to the soundtrack with a new track titled “Venom.” And as you might expect, the rapper fills the track with plenty of allusions to the film, for better or worse.
“Venom” hits theaters on October 5.