Second Venom Report Suggests Riz Ahmed Has Tested For Carnage After All

With production due to commence across parts of New York and Atlanta next month, Ruben Fleischer’s standalone Venom movie is finally beginning to flicker into life.

Dunkirk and The Dark Knight Rises actor Tom Hardy has already signed on to wrangle with the titular alien symbiote as Eddie Brock, while last night brought news that Riz Ahmed, Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones), Mathias Schoenarts and former Doctor Who actor Matt Smith had all come into contention to play a “major Marvel character” in Sony’s 2018 spinoff. First reported by The Tracking Board, it was initially believed that those four talented candidates had tested for the role of the Chameleon, as Sony Pictures began casting its net in search of Venom‘s primary antagonist.

However, a follow-up report from The Tracking Board’s Jeff Sneider suggests that insiders are torn on the matter, before going on to hint that one of his own trusted sources staunchly believes that Riz Ahmed – and presumably those other three prospects – have auditioned for the role of Cletus Kasady, better known to you, I, and Eddie Brock as the nefarious Carnage.

Per Twitter:

UPDATED the VENOM story. Sources are torn on Riz's role, but one I trust insists it's Carnage, which Riz is believed to have auditioned for.

— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) August 10, 2017

Based on these conflicting reports, we’d hazard a guess that Sony is yet to formally settle on a villain for its Venom offshoot – either that, or those aforementioned sources are simply at odds – but with Ruben Fleischer, Tom Hardy, and the rest of the crew preparing to fire up production in the coming weeks, it shouldn’t be too much longer before we hear firm confirmation one way or another.

Riz Ahmed, Pascal (Kingsman: The Golden Circle), Schoenarts and Matt Smith are all remarkably talented actors in their own right, and it’s unclear as yet if there’s a clear frontrunner in this race. As always though, we’ll be keeping you right up-to-date as this story develops.

Ruben Fleischer’s Venom movie has been slated for release on October 5th, 2018.