With Venom 2 now officially in the works, you can expect to see Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock to go toe-to-toe with Woody Harrelson’s Carnage within the next couple of years. But while writer Kelly Marcel is also confirmed to return for the sequel to last year’s box office smash, the involvement of director Ruben Fleischer is still up in the air.
Variety reports that Sony may be looking for a new filmmaker to helm the next Venom movie due to Fleischer being tied up with Zombieland 2. Production on the long-awaited sequel to the 2009 horror comedy is expected to begin this month, and will likely keep the director heavily occupied until the movie’s release this fall. And given the surprising commercial heights scaled by the first Venom in the face of lousy reviews, Sony is probably hoping to follow up on the success while there’s still the momentum.
Depending on how you felt about the first movie, there are a few ways to respond to this development, though most viewers probably won’t be too troubled if Fleischer doesn’t make a return. After all, if you count yourself among the detractors of Eddie’s solo debut, then a change in director surely couldn’t hurt matters, especially if it means that Fleischer can work on a sequel to the far more critically acclaimed Zombieland. And among Venom’s defenders, you’ll often find Tom Hardy’s performance to be regarded as the main reason why the movie worked, and since he’s still confirmed for the follow-up, fans should have little reason to complain.
In any case, while a release date for Venom 2 has yet to be announced, a report from last year at least indicated that the sequel could be coming to us on October 2nd, 2020. In the meantime, you can catch Zombieland 2 in theaters from October 11th, 2019.
