Tom Hardy Already Planning Venom 3, Even as Venom 2 Is a Month Away

Venom: Let There Be Carnage — the second film in the Spider-Man spin-off franchise — is still over a month away from release, but star Tom Hardy has already begun planning Venom 3. It might seem odd for a star to be taking part so early on, but like Ryan Reynolds on the Deadpool series, the 43-year-old English actor has gotten himself involved behind the scenes too. Hardy has his first story-by credit — alongside screenwriter Kelly Marcel — on the first Venom sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and seems set to continue in that vein on Venom 3, if and when it gets made.

“I’m thinking about the third movie as well, because I think you need to write that at the same time,” Hardy told Esquire in a new interview. “A third [Venom movie] won’t be greenlit until the second is successful, but the studio [was] really, really pleased with number two.” While Venom failed with critics, it racked up over $856 million (about Rs. 6,359 crores) at the box office worldwide, giving Sony Pictures the confidence to make another. Venom: Let There Be Carnage arrives in a coronavirus-troubled world though, so it’ll be interesting to see how it fares.

The question always asked of Venom is if the anti-hero will square off against Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, whose rights too are owned by Sony Pictures even as the character is shared with Disney for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The studios will have to work out how that will function, though Marvel’s recent multiverse foray does make that easier. For his part, Hardy said: “I would be remiss if I wasn’t trying to steer any kind of connectivity. I wouldn’t be doing the job if I wasn’t awake and open to any opportunity or eventuality or be excited by that.

“Obviously, that’s a large canyon to leap, to be bridged by one person alone, and it would take a much higher level of diplomacy and intelligence, sitting down and talking, to take on an arena such as that. Should both sides be willing, and it be beneficial to both sides, I don’t see why it couldn’t be. I hope and strongly, with both hands, push, eagerly, towards that potential, and would do anything to make that happen, within what’s right in business. But it would be foolish not to head towards the Olympic Games if you were running 100 meters, so yeah! I want to play on that field.”

While Sony Pictures is yet to announce Venom 3, the studio is usually quick to move on its superhero movies. Venom: Let There Be Carnage was originally set to release just two years on from Venom, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic poured water on those plans. Sony Pictures has maintained a similar gap with its standalone Spider-Man movies — 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, and 2021’s upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home. Venom 3 is a priority for Hardy too, Esquire noted, with the actor delaying other projects to focus on the symbiote.

Before Venom 3 though, Hardy is set to begin filming on the Netflix action-thriller Havoc from The Raid director Gareth Evans. He will be next seen in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, out in September in India, September 15 in the UK, and September 24 in the US. Sony Pictures might delay it though due to the Delta variant of COVID-19.