CCXP Teaser Poster For Venom Officially Unleashed

“We are Venom.”

That’s the official tagline attached to the CCXP (Comic-Con Experience) teaser poster for Venom, Sony and Ruben Fleischer’s starry spinoff pic that is about to uncover a whole new breed of anti-hero in 2018.

Initially spotted at Brazil’s annual expo early last week, the banner image features a classic rendition of the alien symbiote that first slithered onto the pages of Randy Schueller’s comic in ’88. Now, almost 30 years later, Fleischer and Mad Max star Tom Hardy are about to deliver a hardboiled version of the iconic anti-hero, and we understand filming is already underway across parts of Atlanta and New York.

As a matter of fact, both Hardy and Fleischer have been dropping story clues all this week, after the latter revealed another comic inspiration for Venom‘s narrative arc: Planet of the Symbiotes. First published in ’95, its story will seemingly be fused with that of Lethal Protector, which has also been name-dropped as a catalyst for the big-screen adaptation, one written by Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner and Kelly Marcel.

Here’s a high-res version of that logo, courtesy of CBM:

And though Planet of the Symbiotes and Lethal Protector will have a huge bearing on Venom overall, there have also been murmurings that Fleischer and his team have looked to the likes of David Cronenberg and John Carpenter, two giants of cinema, for inspiration when it comes to the film’s body-horror elements. Stay tuned for more on that front.

Angled to be ground zero of Sony’s Spider-Man universe, one that exists as an adjunct to the massively popular MCU, Venom is due to get the ball rolling on October 5th, 2018. Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate and Manchester By the Sea actress Michelle Williams also star, with the latter seemingly poised to take point as Anne Weying (She-Venom?). Looking further afield, Sony is said to be plotting a separate spinoff based on cult favorite Morbius, the Living Vampire, as well.