Tom Hardy’s MMA Trainer Believes The World Is Not Ready For Venom

Tom Hardy isn’t one to do things by halves.

From Bronson to Fury Road to The Dark Knight Rises, the British thesp is known and loved for his raw, downright mesmerizing performances. And it looks like Venom is about to up the ante.

Pegged to arrive in 2018, the Ruben Fleischer-directed spinoff has officially entered production in Atlanta, after leaked set photos brought us closer to Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and his humble abode. Filming will likely continue into the new year, but we’re now learning that part of Hardy’s intense fitness regime involves a bout of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) training, which ought to please those hoping for a more physical, hardboiled movie than Marvel’s Spider-Man films.

In fact, while discussing Tom Hardy’s fitness plan in a new documentary, trainers Nathan Jones and Mark Mene heaped praise on the British actor, before warning that the world is not ready for Venom.

Jones even went so far as to say that Venom serves up “one of the darkest, most powerful supervillains” yet, which will surely leave comic book diehards (and Tom Hardy fans!) counting down the days until October 5th.

Here’s that brief, tantalizing quote in full, which ends with a very fitting word: carnage.

What the world is going to see is one of the darkest, most powerful supervillains that Marvel has ever created. It’s going to be carnage.

Currently lensing across parts of Atlanta ahead of its release in 2018, Venom features a cast comprised of Michelle Williams (Ann Weying/She-Venom), Riz Ahmed (Carnage?) and Jenny Slate as an unknown scientist. October 5th, 2018 is the date for your diaries, while Sony is also said to be making headway on a live-action adaptation of Morbius, the Living Vampire.