Why Tom Hardy’s Venom Voice Is Different In Let There Be Carnage

After an extremely long wait, we’ve finally gotten a good look at Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The new trailer to the upcoming sequel showed us what life with Eddie Brock and the symbiote is like and reintroduced us to Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady/Carnage. But fans quickly noticed a subtle change: Venom’s voice is different.

So, what gives? Well, we got a little clue in a ‘director’s commentary’ of the trailer from Andy Serkis. The Lord of the Rings star explained that a whole year and a half has passed since the events of Venom, which would give the symbiote time to become acclimatized to his new situation. As we learned in the first movie, he was “kind of a loser” on his home planet and grew to appreciate life on Earth. Based on that, it makes a good deal of sense for him to be much more relaxed, more secure with Eddie, and just happier in general. Hence the generally cheerier and less menacing voice.

But it seems that Venom won’t be the only character with an attachment to Brock. Serkis explained that Cletus Kasady sees Eddie as a kindred spirit due to their similar childhoods and that the police want to use this relationship to find out where Kasady’s victims are buried. And, of course, later on comes the screaming, stabbing, and symbiote-on-symbiote combat.

Meanwhile, one aspect that fans may be a bit disappointed with is that, as Serkis explains, “Venom is in his own universe and no heroes like Spider-Man have been discovered or are known of in this world… yet.” This pours water on the rumors that we’d see a tiny cameo from Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, though a shot of the spider in the trailer must be an oblique reference to the web-slinger. Whatever the case, I’m hyped. Venom was a hilarious and very fun movie and I’m pleased that Sony is playing up the comedy double act angle.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will hit theaters on September 24, 2021.