Barring the back-and-forth surrounding the film’s relation to the MCU – or lack thereof – Venom has piqued the curiosity of comic book fans the world over thanks to Sony and Ruben Fleischer’s desire to engineer a dark and potentially R-rated Spider-Man spinoff. There’s someone else though who’s also responsible for much of the intrigue surrounding the pic, and that’d be Dunkirk star Tom Hardy.
In fact, he’s one of the few shining lights in what’s otherwise become a controversial project, one that many fans feel is simply unnecessary. With Hardy on board, however, most people are at least willing to give it a chance. Or they were, until Variety reporter Justin Kroll took to Twitter tonight to announce that Sony has hired Kelly Marcel to pen the script for the film. Best known for Fifty Shades of Grey, it’s an odd choice to say the least and has left everyone pretty bewildered.
Given that Venom has been pitched as a horror/sci-fi film, it’s a complete mystery why the studio felt that Marcel’s the right person for the job. Not to mention that Fifty Shades is an absolutely terrible movie. Her previous credits, Saving Mr. Banks and Terra Nova, don’t exactly jump out as excellent productions, either.
Still, there’s no denying that Tom Hardy is a hugely exciting choice to play the character and given that he’s a tremendously talented individual, we’re able to remain cautiously optimistic that the spinoff will find success, even despite being removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Sony Pictures has a long way to go if it’s to ever compete with Marvel, of course – thanks to Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s blistering success, the MCU is now at $12 billion and counting – but the studio’s own Spidey universe is all set to kick off with the launch of Venom on October 5th, 2018. Other projects in the mix include Silver & Black, along with spinoff movies featuring Kraven and Mysterio.