Venom’s Riz Ahmed Won’t Answer If He’s Playing Carnage

Venom will introduce Tom Hardy’s titular anti-hero, but it’ll also feature a bunch of other symbiote supervillain types, too. As it’s loosely based on the Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes comic book arcs, the Spider-Man spinoff movie will be digging deep into the world of the gloopy, parasitic creatures.

But will we see Carnage, the most famous symbiote outside of Venom? Since the film’s production began, fans have theorized that Riz Ahmed’s Carlton Drake, who seems to be the big bad of the movie as the head of the sinister Life Foundation, could turn out to be the host of the red-faced murderous symbiote. EW put the question to Ahmed in a recent interview but the actor was smart enough to dodge it entirely.

Laughing off the inquiry, he simply said:

“I can confirm I’ll be acting in Venom.“

EW then decided to press him for information on if he’d be part of the studio’s big plans to make a shared franchise out of the Marvel properties that they have the rights to – a project that’s been given the catchy title of Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters. Again, however, Ahmed was too smart to give anything away, deferring the question to the studio execs.

“You’ll have to ask the guys at Marvel.”

Putting the pieces together ourselves, we’re pretty sure Drake won’t turn out to be Carnage. For one, the trailers have revealed that he’ll bond with a different symbiote and become Riot instead. Also, reports from a while back said that Woody Harrelson would turn up in a post-credits scene as Cletus Kasady, the actual host of the Carnage symbiote in the comics. The intention is presumably that he’ll appear in a major role in the planned sequel.

One way or another, though, we’ll find out what’s really happening when Venom slithers into cinemas on October 5th.