Despite initial reports that Sony was holding strong to Venom 2‘s release date, the studio has pulled the trigger on pushing the Tom Hardy anti-hero flick into the next year. Given the current uncertainty on when to reopen theaters in light of the ongoing pandemic, the move doesn’t come as a total surprise, but Sony did sneak in a little treat for Venom fans. In announcing the delay, the studio revealed the title for the symbiote sequel. Variety reports:
Sony’s “Venom” sequel — officially titled “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” — has delayed its big screen debut. The film was expected to hit theaters Oct. 2, 2020 and will instead launch eight months later on June 25, 2021.
As Variety notes, Sony has essentially booted its entire 2020 release schedule into the next year with this latest move. At the end of March, the studio had pushed back the release dates for Morbius, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Uncharted, but Venom fans were optimistic when reports came in saying the sequel was specifically left off of the list and Sony was still gunning for the October release date. Obviously, that’s no longer the case. Whether the studio didn’t like what it was seeing in box-office projections as theater chains scramble to adapt a “new normal” that will limit ticket sales or it simply needed more time to finish the film hasn’t been disclosed.
Directed by Andy Serkis, Venom: Let There Be Carnage will feature the return of Tom Hardy as Venom/Eddie Brock who’ll be facing off with his classic comic book nemesis Carnage played by Woody Harrelson. The two symbiote-fueled characters have a long, complicated history that fans have been waiting to see on the big screen since the ’90s, and it sounds like things will get even messier with the addition of a third villain, Shriek.
(Via Variety)