Up until this point, Venom has very much been the story of two trailers.
Back in February, Sony and director Ruben Fleischer gave us a sneak peek that was, to be frank, lacking in bite – and Venom, incidentally, unless you count that blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot included right at the very end.
In all fairness, Fleischer and his SFX team are calling upon cutting-edge CGI to render Eddie Brock’s raging alter-ego, so it’s likely that the effects simply weren’t ready in time for the teaser’s release. The second, full-length trailer, however, was a completely different story, offering fans an up-close look at the alien symbiote slithering over Tom Hardy’s helpless body, signaling the moment when two become one.
And now, thanks to some new promo art (seen in the gallery below), we have an even better look at Venom, and as you can see, it’s a lot more in line with the character’s appearance in the comics. Not to mention it’s also pretty similar to what we got in the aforementioned second preview, with those terrifying teeth just ready and waiting to bite into some poor, helpless victim.
Story-wise, we know that Venom is set to adapt two comic arcs: Planet of the Symbiotes and Lethal Protector. The former fan-favorite first released in ’95, and follows Eddie Brock as he forms an uneasy alliance with Spider-Man in order to clear his name. David Cronenberg (The Fly) and John Carpenter (The Thing), two giants of world cinema, have also been name-dropped in the past, which tells us that Ruben Fleischer has combed through the archives so as to find inspiration for the film’s body-horror elements.
Featuring a script penned by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner – before Kelly Marcel and Will Beal polished things up a little – Venom is due to slither into theaters on October 5th, at which point Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Woody Harrelson, Scott Haze and Reid Scott will be rounding out the ensemble cast.
