It’s Time To Prepare Ourselves For The Inevitablity Of VENOM 2
WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Venom.
This morning, I was reading a bit of box office analysis over at Forbes when I came across this passage:
"Sony’s Venom is expected to be the top movie of the weekend for a second (and final) time. Rank is immaterial, as the Tom Hardy/Michelle Williams superhero origin story is performing above even the most optimistic projections. After an $80 million debut weekend, the film has earned around $107m in its first week of release...However unlikely, I think Sony would be okay with a $161m domestic cume for a $100m-budgeted sci-fi fantasy that will probably cross $300m worldwide today or tomorrow."
That's right: Ruben Fleischer's Venom (a movie many of us were convinced would be a nuclear box-office bomb) will, at some point in the next 24 hours, pass the $300M mark in worldwide ticket sales. As of this writing, there's been no official word from Sony about a Venom 2, but come on: that whole "$300M at the worldwide box office" thing is basically all the confirmation we need. It's certainly enough to move forward with the conversation I'd like to have with all of you today, which goes like this:
Do you have any fucking idea how bananas Venom 2 is gonna be?
Those of you who've seen Venom know that Fleischer's film ends with an exciting stinger: Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock (having finally worked out an agreeable work/life/symbiote balance) takes his trusty tape recorder down to the local prison, where he finds himself interviewing Cletus Kasady, here played by Woody Harrelson in a hilarious wig. After a brief back-and-forth, Kasady tells Brock that, should he be released, there will be "carnage".
Now, if you're anything like me, you were left utterly baffled as to what this scene could possibly mean. The Ronald McDonald wig...the name "Cletus Kasady"...the use of the word "carnage". Surely it had to mean something, but what? Well, I've spent the past week exhaustively investigating these clues, and have come to a shocking conclusion: Venom's end-credits scene is setting up a sequel featuring Carnage, a questionably-popular character who served as Venom's antagonist in a number of Marvel-brand comic books.
And if I'm correct, this means that we, as a people, are facing down the possibility of a Venom 2 wherein Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson will do battle against one another as ridiculous men possessed by alien symbiotes.
It should go without saying that this is extremely exciting. Just imagine the possibilities: will Kasady keep his Raggedy Andy wig? Will Carnage also have a silly speaking voice? Of course there will be punching, but will there also be scenes where Venom and Carnage have serious arguments with one another? Will Venom's unexpectedly massive box office success embolden Tom Hardy to push his wacky Eddie Brock mannerisms even farther? Will that same leeway be extended to Harrelson?
If the answer to any of these questions is "Yes", I submit to you that we are in for a treat.
Venom is not a good movie (it is, in fact, a bad movie), but pound-for-pound, set-piece for set-piece and minute-to-minute, I had more fun sitting in a theater watching Venom than any other film in recent memory. Its absurdities are glorious to behold, and instantly marked Fleischer's film as the ill-advised studio movie to beat in 2018. I am thrilled to feel safe in assuming we'll be getting a sequel, and am positively beside myself with excitement to imagine what wonders it will contain. Somehow, the groundwork has been laid for something even sillier than the film currently in theaters.
Are y'all as hyped for this as I am? Will you show up for Venom 2? What are your demands for a sequel, and do you want Fleischer to return to direct? Sound off in the comments below, and stay tuned for further updates on the inevitable Venom sequel as they roll in.
