Sony has released new images prior to next week’s Venom Comic-Con trailer and panel.
The new pics feature a look at Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, Riz Ahmed as Dr. Carlton Drake and the Venom symbiote.
The Sony Venom and Spider-Man panel takes place Friday, July 20 at 6:15PM in Hall H.
Tom Hardy also told EW.com why he chose to take on the character.
“As far as Marvel characters, I have to say for me, Venom looks the coolest,” Hardy said with a laugh. “That sounds a bit shallow! But I appreciate that he has a kind of brazen swagger and a zero foxtrot attitude.”
Plot details revealed include that Eddie Brock, a journalist reeling from a recent scandal, is desperate to get back on top, so he starts investigating the Life Foundation and its cryptic leader, Dr. Carlton Drake (Ahmed). Before long, Eddie is exposed to a slimy, tar-like alien known as a symbiote, which imbues him with extraordinary powers and takes up residence in his head, rent-free.
“There’s a tragic clown element, which I find funny and is harmonious with some of the work that I like to do,” Hardy said. “There’s something funny about the circumstances of having a gift but it’s a tragic gift. It’s a superpower you don’t really want, but at the same time, you love it. It makes you feel special. He’s a reluctant hero and an anti-hero.”
Director Ruben Fleische also offers the relationship between Eddie Brock and the symbiote is one that is shared.
“Usually a human gets imbued with powers or an alien comes from outer space and has to figure out how to live on our Earth,” Fleischer said. “But this is really about a relationship between two people who have to work together to create this hybrid symbiotic relationship.”
“It’s a bit like Ren and Stimpy, you know?” Hardy said, laughing. “They have different sounds. I always saw Venom as sounding like a James Brown lounge lizard, and Eddie Brock is kind of…” — he switches to an aw-shucks American accent — “I don’t know, an everyday kind of guy. But he’s inherited this massive ego, this beast. There’s that biting-off-heads issue, which is not what you would expect from, say, Captain America taking down a crook.”
Venom has an October 5, 2018 release.
