Venom to be an anti-hero in Amazing Spider-Man 2 spin-off?
By Daniel Wood
Venom in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3
The Venom spin-off is happening. But how will they handle the fan favourite Spider-Man villain in his own movie, will he be the dangerous symbiotic menace that grapples with our neighbourhood friendly Spider-Man or will we see an anti-hero Venom, or even a straight-up hero?
There’s actually an incredible amount of story-potential in a Venom movie as really the main protagonist is two characters the symbiote and the host, I envisage moments when a differential is made clear and the audience relates to both. Not to mention of the symbiote spawns and offspring as well as the occasional dabble with super-heroism as the ‘lethal protector’ not to mention the times Venom and Spider-Man have teamed up, especially against psychotic symbiote Carnage. Venom is an incredibly complex character and I look forward to seeing that come across on-screen.
But what does veteran Spider-Man producer Ari Arad think?
"“Venom hated only one guy – Spider-Man. He wasn’t innately bad, he was a shortcut guy, not really into fighting hard for achievement. That’s the Venom story. Can he also be a good guy? As you know, Venom was also called ‘lethal defender of the innocent’. We had a great history with him, especially caring for the homeless, which is a very sensitive issue and something that many of us are very concerned with.”"
So as you can see it looks like the studio is more than aware that they can spin Venom either way, the morality of a character such as this is ambiguous and much more than just black or white.
"“Our villains all represent a different side of the misunderstood, and some of them unfortunately turned to the dark side. Venom happened to be a phenomenal character. With Eddie Brock, or if you do Flash Thompson, it doesn’t matter who is going to be inside the suit – what’s important is that a man like him is going to realise there comes a time when you wake up in the morning and say ‘How did I get here? There must be a better way.”"
From this it sounds like Venom will start off as the iconic Spider-Man villain that most people are familiar with him being, in his first movie I expect him to clash with Spider-Man himself, for the movie to build up the hatred that both the symbiote and the host have for the Wallcrawler. Then they’ll gradually start to lean Venom towards being an anti-hero who sometimes helps Spider-Man.
Personally I’m just excited to see Venom at all, I know a lot of people weren’t happy with Sam Raimi’s take on the character so it’ll be nice to see someone else give it a go, especially in his own movie!
Want more Spider-Man news? Subscribe to the Whatever A Spider Can newsletter to get the latest news and rumors about upcoming movies, TV shows and comics before anyone else.