It’s become Hollywood legend that Sam Raimi didn’t want Venom to be a part of Spider-Man 3, before the filmmaker ultimately relented under pressure from the studio to include a character that he wasn’t a particularly big fan of, and that came across in the movie.
Topher Grace was woefully miscast as Eddie Brock, and longtime comic book readers rejected his take on the iconic antihero, one that was really only there to play a part in the climactic third act action sequence and drive up tie-in merchandise sales.
Thankfully, Tom Hardy’s take on the symbiote has gone down a storm, with the two Venom solo blockbusters racking up over $1.3 billion at the box office, while the actor and producer has come in for widespread praise thanks to a sweaty, neurotic and altogether eccentric pair of performances.
In an exclusive interview with We Got This Covered, we asked Todd McFarlane why Hardy’s Venom connected much more with audiences than the underwhelming Grace.
“Well, to be fair, I think we’re talking a little bit of apples and oranges. I don’t think it’s a direct comparison. And here’s why I say that. The first movie was a Spider-Man movie, in which he was a villain, and you’re not supposed to root for the villain, right? And in that case, the villain, the bad guy, if you will, was that visually, I thought he could have been way more imposing… way more impressive.
So he was the bad guy. And to me, I didn’t think he came across as the sort of badass as you could have. Fast forward to now, and what they’re trying to accomplish with the Tom Hardy character. Eddie Brock, is… he’s not the bad guy anymore. He’s the guy you’re rooting for. And he gets his two hours of screen time, instead of being the guy that you hope gets sort of beat up at the end. And you get to develop him a little bit more. And oh, by the way, he’s way more imposing, visually, up on the screen.
And so I think it’s, I think it’s way in Tom’s favor, because you go ahead, you’re the lead, you’re a good guy, and you look super badass, right? So I think they were trying to accomplish two different things on both of them. It’s not a straight comparison of them being the same character, per se.”
Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s post-credits scene has set things up for another showdown between the alien parasite and Spider-Man, except this time we’re virtually guaranteed the showdown we’ve always wanted to see, based entirely on the popularity of Toms Hardy and Holland in their respective roles.