The Coronavirus pandemic has had a severe effect on the theatrical industry, and we’re still waiting to find out if the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters is going to go boom or bust. Once upon a time, Jared Leto’s Morbius was set to hit the big screen in July 2020 before Venom: Let There Be Carnage arrived just a couple of months later, but it would be an understatement to say that things have changed since then.
Morbius is going to be sitting on the shelf until next January now, but we’ll at least get to see Tom Hardy return as Eddie Brock on September 24th. The first Venom was a surprisingly massive success at the box office after hauling in over $850 million, but reviews were less than enthusiastic and at times it felt as though director Ruben Fleischer deliberately set out to make a superhero blockbuster from the 1990s.
Andy Serkis is behind the camera for the sequel, and it’s already looking as if he’s adopted a much different visual and tonal aesthetic. Meanwhile, the promise of some scenery-devouring exchanges between Hardy’s nervously sweating Eddie Brock and Woody Harrelson’s broad Cletus Kasady should be more than enough to let you know if you’re on board with the follow-up, which seems like it’s going to be a whole lot of intentionally ridiculous fun based on this first trailer.
It’s unlikely that it’ll come close to reaching $850 million during its theatrical run given the lingering effects of the pandemic, but it should at least put the SPUMC in good stead for the release of both Morbius and the slew of in-development projects to have been announced during the long wait for Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
