When Venom swung onto the big screen in the very underwhelming Spiderman 3 in 2007, many fans already gave up on getting to see the character they deserved, seeing as it was very unlikely for Sony to ever use the character again. However, Venom is getting a chance to redeem himself later this year in his own solo movie played by Tom Hardy.
Till date, there has been little-to-no information about the cast and the plot of the movie, but now we have an idea about what the movie will be about. Director Ruben Fleischer has confirmed that the Venom movie will be inspired by the Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes storylines, saying:
We want to be as true as possible to the comic with our film. But our story is primarily based on the Lethal Protector and the Planet of the Symbiotes book.
Ruben Fleischer made this known at the Brazil Comic-Con last month, and while Lethal Protector had previously been rumoured as inspiration for Venom, it’s still good to have confirmation that the movie’s plot will partially adapt both that and Planet of the Symbiotes.
Lethal Protector was published as a six-issue miniseries from February to July of 1993, five years after Eddie Brock became Venom. After years of clashing with Spider-Man, Venom and the Web-Slinger agreed that they would leave each other alone, provided that Venom wouldn’t continue his life of crime.
Eddie Brock then left New York City and moved to San Francisco, but while in the Bay City, the father of one of Venom’s victims hired a gang of mercenaries to kill him. From there, things escalated, as Spider-Man came to see what the commotion in San Francisco was, and he and Venom later had to deal with five of the Venom symbiote’s offspring. Venom would obviously not be able to adapt the full storyline since Spider-Man wouldn’t be in the movie at all, but it will be set in San Francisco, and perhaps Eddie will start using his new powers as a vigilante rather than a villain, only to find trouble from an unexpected source.
On the other hand, Planet of the Symbiotes, which was published as a five-issue miniseries from June to October of 1995, saw Eddie Brock finally decide to force the Venom symbiote to leave him after fully realizing how it was corrupting him, the angered symbiote mentally contacted a nearby spaceship full of symbiote to attack Earth. Along with featuring Carnage, who is reportedly the main antagonist in Venom, this story also includes the five symbiote offspring mentioned earlier.
It’s still unclear whether the five other lifeforms will show alongside Carnage, but I guess we’ll know more when the official plot of the movie is released.
Venom swings into theatres on October 5, 2018.