Actor Andy Serkis recently revealed why he did not return to direct Venom 3. Although the films in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe have been received poorly by critics, the Venom films have fared well at the box office. Despite the negative reception, Sony is committed to the superhero franchise with another Venom sequel getting a greenlight along with Kraven the Hunter, El Muerto, and Madame Web.
With Venom pulling in over $850 million worldwide, Sony tapped Serkis to direct the sequel. Although known for his acting work as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Caesar in The latest Planet of the Apes films, Serkis also has experience in the director’s chair with the biographical film, Breathe, starring Andrew Garfield and Netflix’s The Jungle Book adaptation, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. Although Serkis initially showed interest in returning for the Venom sequel, the actor chose not to helm the film and was instead Kelly Marcell will direct Venom 3.
In a recent interview with SlashFilm, Serkis shared why he will not be returning to the SSU to direct Venom 3. The actor admitted that he had an excellent time working on the film and with Venom star, Tom Hardy. However, his schedule is filled with various projects to include his next film, an adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Read what the Serkis said below:
“Look, I had a ball doing [Venom: Let There Be Carnage]. Tom Hardy is such a good friend of mine, and I felt very proud of the work, and we had such fun doing it. To be the custodian of that franchise for a little while was great. I’ve got so many projects that I was just about to [work on], like ‘Animal Farm’ for instance. We were just about to go into production with that, and then we delayed as ‘Venom’ came up. I really have to be very on top of the ones that I’ve been building to do for such a long time. But I’m really delighted that Kelly’s doing that. She’s so in control of that material with Tom. The pair of them are such a great team to work with. I’m really excited to see what they’re going to come up with.”
Where The Venom Franchise Could Go Next
A previous report indicated that Venom 3 may be the final chapter in the anti-hero’s film series. However, with Sony pushing for a Sinster Six movie in the future, Venom 3 may not be last time audiences see Hardy portray alien symbiote host and investigative journalist, Eddie Brock. With Marvel Cinematic Universe star, Tom Holland, previously showing interest in starring alongside Hardy in a future Venom film, it is possible that another MCU crossover is on the table.
Spider-Man: No Way Home featured a post-credits scene that aligned with Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s tag that depicted Brock transporting to the MCU. In the popular Spider-Man film, Brock was briefly shown learning about Earth-616 and its heroes before being whisked back to his own universe following Doctor Strange’s memory spell. However, a bit of the symbiote was left behind, hinting at a possible future Spider-Man film with Venom. With the SSU still finding its footing after the box office dud that was Morbius, audiences will likely have to be patient to see if Spider-Man makes an appearance in Venom 3.
Source: SlashFilm
