With a whopping $90.1 million opening, Venom: Let There Be Carnage beat its predecessor at the box office this weekend despite facing the insurmountable odds of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Love or hate Tom Hardy's iteration of Eddie Brock, it now seems clear that the character is here to stay and the Venom sequel does plenty to set the stage for a third film...and perhaps a fourth, as well. Sony Pictures understandably has ambitious plans for this character, and Andy Serkis was the right choice of filmmaker to expand this universe in ways we could have never imagined way back in 2018.
Venom's reach now looks set to expand beyond just "Sony's Spider-Man Universe," which promises to be a game-changer for just about everything we see from the symbiote moving forward.
The Lethal Protector has a bright future on the big screen; read on to see what that could entail!
5. The Lethal Protector
When Venom: Let There Be Carnage begins, Eddie Brock has done what he can to tame his alien other. That's not working for either of them, and much of this film is devoted to Venom's desire to become a Lethal Protector.
Even the fans who enjoyed Venom were disappointed by the character's goofy nature, so Sony clearly took that on board by laying the groundwork for a transformation into a Venom more in line with his comic book counterpart. Now, with the anti-hero setting his sights on "murderer" Peter Parker, it feels like this franchise is finally about to embrace that lethal side of the character.
There are a lot of interesting directions that can go on screen, and it should help establish Venom as a more proactive "hero" as opposed to someone who only leaps into action when he has to. This could bring him into conflict not just with the police, but potentially some of Sony's hero characters.
4. Detective Pat Mulligan's Toxic Future
Detective Patrick Mulligan has his sights set on Eddie Brock in this movie and ultimately learns that he's secretly Venom during the final act. From the cop's perspective, the journalist is every bit the monster Cletus Kasady is, and it appears he has somehow been infected with his own symbiote now.
We're not sure what else his eyes glowing blue was supposed to signify, but in the comic books, it's Carnage's offspring that the cop is infected with. From there, he's forced to try and balance the alien's evil impulses with his own desire to continue being a good cop, and Pat ultimately gains control over Carnage's vastly more powerful "child."
There's clearly potential here for a movie with Toxin as the antagonist, and we're sure Stephen Graham would have a blast with a role like this. Whether the character is interesting enough to base an entire movie around is another matter, though, so it might be a good idea to bring in another baddie.
3. More She-Venom
Venom once again spends some time with Anne Weying in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and it seems a lot like he could just as easily bond with her as Eddie Brock. We're sure She-Venom's inclusion was pure fan service as fans loved that scene in the first movie, but it's also possible the stage was being set for the character to play a bigger role moving forward.
Eddie and Anne reuniting feels like the natural endgame for at least the first act of this franchise, and upping the ante in the next movie to include Toxin and perhaps a symbiote like Scream could be the perfect excuse for Venom to spread himself out. With that, Eddie and Anne could become a formidable duo capable of taking on enemies together.
It would be a shame to continue just dropping in She-Venom cameos for the sake of it, but providing Michelle Williams wants to return for a third instalment, we have a feeling there's more to come here (especially now that the symbiote appears to be spawning offspring).
2. Carnage Lives?
On the surface, Cletus Kasady's death appears to be pretty definitive. Venom basically eats and absorbs the symbiote and proceeds to bite off the serial killer's head. How the heck would he return? Well, there's actually precedent for this in the comic books, and the groundwork may have been laid for it in the movie itself.
On the page, Venom once absorbed Carnage, but it made him sick and the suit was ultimately able to return to its original host. Throughout Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we see the symbiote transform Cletus' body into his alien form, so Carnage is more part of him than just a suit he wears (and in the comics, Carnage has used the murderer's corpse as a host).
If just a little piece of Carnage was still inside Cletus, he could quite easily return. Similarly, the symbiote returning to his remains could be more than enough to bring him back. That's why we think the best possible direction for the next solo outing would be to initially pit Venom against Toxin, only for them to then have to team up to fight a resurrected Carnage.
1. Venom vs. Spider-Man
In Venom: Let There Be Carnage's post-credits scene, Eddie Brock is somehow transported into the Marvel Cinematic Universe where Venom takes great interest in a news report about Spider-Man being Peter Parker. We're not sure if the symbiote senses Spidey's power or thinks Mysterio's killer would be a good target because he's a Lethal Protector now, but a fight is coming.
We have a feeling we'll see their face-off in Spider-Man 4 rather than Venom 3, but it will all depend on how Spider-Man: No Way Home plays out. That movie could remove Peter Parker from the MCU, merge that world with Sony's Spider-Man Universe, or give the web-slinger the ability to travel between realities.
A big screen meeting between these two has huge box office potential and should make for a spectacular movie. Seeing Peter fall under the influence of this Venom would be pretty wacky, and if Brock winds up with the classic logo and the ability to spin webs by the time all is said and done, that wouldn't exactly be a bad thing.