Sony Releases First Trailer for ‘Venom’ Sequel

There's another symbiote monster on the loose.


There’s another symbiote monster on the loose.

2018’s Venom was an interesting litmus test for Marvel films set outside of the primary Marvel Cinematic Universe, and based on its box-office reception, it was a successful one. As such, Sony has been working on a sequel film for several years, though it has been met with multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, though, a new trailer has released for the next installment in the life of the lethal protector.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage follows the events of the first film with Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) still sharing his body with the uncanny, perpetually ravenous symbiote, Venom. The two seem to have gotten at least somewhat used to cohabitation, but things become dangerous when another symbiote pair appear: death row serial killer Cletus Cassidy (Woody Harrelson) and a blood-red symbiote. After surviving a lethal injection, Cassidy transforms into the gleefully murderous Carnage, bent on driving the world into chaos, and only Brock and Venom can stop him.

While Venom has always been a Spider-Man villain in the comic books, this incarnation of Venom currently exists independently from Peter Parker and the Avengers. However, rumors have surfaced recently that the Venom films may merge into the main MCU at some point, and there’s even an Avengers reference in the new trailer. In response to these rumors, Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis made some clarifications.

“Obviously, there are links between Venom and Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe and the Spider-Man story,” Serkis told IGN. “We’re treating this very much as it’s his own world. The Venom story is his own world. There are nods and little moments [like the shot of the newspaper the Daily Bugle], of course, but on the whole he’s unaware. They are unaware, at this point, of other characters like Spider-Man. So, that’s the way we’ve chosen to play this particular episode of the movie, but, well, we’ll wait and see. We’ll see what little things you can pick out of it.”

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will launch exclusively in theaters on September 24, 2021.