Woody Harrelson’s Carnage Confirmed As Villain For Venom 2

“When I get out of here, and I will, there’s gonna be carnage.”

So says Cletus Kasady in the post-credits scene of last year’s Venom, and with Venom 2 now officially in the works, we also have confirmation that Woody Harrelson’s character is going to stay true to his word. A new piece from Variety reports that the Natural Born Killers star will indeed be suiting up as Carnage in the upcoming sequel, and as the most famous adversary of Eddie Brock not named ‘Spider-Man,’ many fans have been waiting for this development ever since the first movie was announced.

Producer Matt Tolmach even felt the need to clarify a few months ago why Carnage wasn’t a part of the saga right from the start, explaining that they wanted the first Venom to focus on the origins of its titular antihero, and that setting up the backstories of both Cletus and Eddie may have proved a bit much for one movie.

In any case, the symbiote is set to arrive in this next installment, which will be penned once more by Kelly Marcel. Obviously how much you’re looking forward to Venom 2 will depend heavily on what you thought of Eddie Brock’s critically panned but surprisingly profitable solo debut, and if you weren’t too keen on the first film’s PG-13 rating, then you probably won’t be feeling overly optimistic about this next outing.

Despite Cletus’ backstory as a serial killer, producer Avi Arad argued last year that the sequel needn’t get too gory to capture the psychological essence of Carnage, saying:

“When you hear Carnage, the only thing you can think of is R. But, if you know his story, if you really know the comic, there’s no R here. He’s a tortured soul. It’s not about what he does, because we never have to show the knife going from here to there, and the blood is pouring. What you have to show is, what is the motivation? Was he born like that, or [is he] someone we should feel for, because if you succeeding in making a villain someone you can feel for, jackpot.”

Arad’s vision of a family-friendly Carnage will be put to the test when Venom 2 arrives in theaters, which one report indicates might be as soon as October 2nd, 2020.