Venom stars,Tom Hardy and Riz Ahmed, and director Ruben Fleischer talked about creating one of the darkest Marvel films yet at San Diego Comic-Con.
Hardy took the role in part because of his son’s love for the character: “First and foremost, I’m a dad. One of the things you come across as a father is a massive influx of stories brought to you after Fireman Sam by Spider-Mans and Venoms and Captain Americas. So, my son came to me with a specific character that he absolutely fell in love with.”
“I started to take a look at it,” he continued, “and then, as if by magic, a script appeared on the horizon. Having had done ‘Dark Knight’ with Chris Nolan, I’d kind of done my superhero bit, but when I was presented with the opportunity to play Venom— and that correlated with my son’s love of Venom and how cool he was — I got really, really excited and decided I wanted to do it.”
The “Venom-verse” has been created as a standalone by Sony, but that it’s really above his pay grade to know where Venom will fit in the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I’m quite mercenary, and quite selfish in that aspect, I’m very, very happy to have a standalone character within the Marvel universe,” he said. “I don’t know where it fits in the grand scheme of things but I would never rule anything out.”
Fleischer added that though Venom is still unrated, they’re “pushing the envelope.” He said they’re trying to incorporate the darkness of the comic book and material into the film, which is set to premiere October 5.
Hardy also teased the sequel to 2015 favorite “Mad Max: Fury Road.” When he signed on, the plan was always for three films, and that they’re just waiting for a greenlight from Warner.