Venom: The Last Dance
It was not wrong when it was stated that 2024 would be a carnival for superhero fans. This was evident at the beginning of this year when the TV series Echo (a popular Marvel character that has created its popularity in live-action adoption by appearing in a small but impactful role in the Hawkeye TV series) that takes place in Marvel Cinematic Universe arrived on January of this year.
But this was just the tip of the iceberg. It was soon followed by many more innovative films, web series, trailers, and announcements which support the statement of carnival for the fans of superheroes, such as the face of MCU returning to the franchise by playing a character opposite of what he played in the past, the arrival of the most unexpected crossover film of all time Deadpool & Wolverine, The release of the Boys TV show (Which is a satirical take on how in the real world superheroes will behave and it is not indeed the heroic image which people see on Marvel and DC comics/films ) etc.
However, this year, it seems that this is the year reserved for antiheroes and supervillains because, in the beginning, it was Echo (A villain and also anti-hero), then Deadpool & Wolverine (The antiheroes of Marvel) films, and soon it will be The Clown Prince of Crime coming to terrorize Gotham in a vastly different way on the second installment of his solo movie and now it is time for Venom.
Sony ( the character which holds the film rights of Spider-man mythos and Venom also falls into this category ) has released the final trailer of ‘The Last Dance’.
It is the third installment, which will act as the culmination of the story that started on the 2018 film Venom and also it is part of SSU (Sony Spider-Man Universe which is mainly a shared universe of Spider-Man rogues along with a couple of supporting characters of Spider-Man but here is a twist is that the classic rogues operates on the style of superhero like what was seen in The Last Dance and his two prequel installment also in Morbius and the upcoming film Kraven which also take place in the same universe ).
From this trailer of ‘The Last Dance’, a hint towards the antagonist being seen, and by the hint, it totally can be perceived that the new villain, Eddie Brock ( The alter ego of this character or more like the host of this Symbiote who hails from the planet Klyntar ) will face will make Carnage ( The antagonist on Venom 2 ) and Riot (The main antagonist on Venom ) looks pale in comparison. ‘The Last Dance’ is scheduled to be released on 25 October 2024. Kelly Marcel is directing this film.
Venom’s solo adventure involved a lot of hurdles
However, the initial plan of this movie trilogy was supposed to be significantly different, which would have also changed the current ‘The Last Dance’ plans. The idea of a solo Version of this film was convinced way back in the late 90s (When even Marvel films didn’t get the ground-breaking popularity like the present day ), which was supposed to be produced by New Line Cinemas and Dolph Lundgren ( Who mostly known for his brilliant take as an antagonist on the Rocky franchise as Ivan Drago ) was in talks to star in the titular role with Cletus Kassady /Carnage was supposed to be the big bad. However, these plans initially failed when Sony acquired the rights to Spider-Man from New Line Cinema.
The idea of a Venom trilogy once again resurfaced in the year 2007 when the character found new-found popularity through Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 (Where he was portrayed by Topher Grace, also known for playing Eric Foreman in the cult classic 90s sitcom That 70s Show). Avi Arad (The main head of Marvel at that time and also currently the executive producer of The Last Dance film), in 2007, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, announced that this film is in the pipeline with Topher Grace reprising his role.
However, it was not made clear if it was on Raimiverse (The universe where the trilogy of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man takes place was dubbed into this term by Marvel and fans) or an alternate universe (Since being on Raimiverse itself is problematic since the character has perished away at the climax of Spider-Man 3 ) with promising that it will be more grounded take on Venom akin to Nolan’s Batman.
However, due to various unforeseen incidents like the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the development got pushed until it got canned in favor of a new Spider-Man reboot. (The Amazing Spider-Man duology, which was directed by Mark Webb and Starred Andrew Garfield in the lead role, who was approached to make a cameo as Peter Parker on ‘The Last Dance’ as per rumor when it was in production.)
However, in 2013, the plans for a Venom film resurfaced when they tried to set up this new TASM verse in the style of Marvel Cinematic Universe by making films /spin-offs about multiple characters tied with Spider-Man. However, following the critical and commercial failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony abandoned this idea; however, the gist of making a cinematic universe based on the characters of Spider-Man was still in the pipeline (The main priority on this aspect was this film).
Finally, after surviving a long era of development, the film regarding Venom got a proper revival in 2016, and the way it was going, it was quickly assumed that this would not be another time the film about this character would end up in the shelved category. Finally, this assumption became a reality when the main character, starring Tom Hardy as the titular character, was released in 2018; even though it got negative reviews from critics, the success at the box office was enough to span into two more sequels, which is ‘Let There Be Carnage’ and the upcoming ‘The Last Dance’.
The development of Venom: The Last Dance
The fact that Venom 3 would be a thing was guessed when its predecessor, ‘Let There Be Carnage’, was a massive hit at the box office ( Despite that time, there was a limited amount of people who were making their way on theater due to the growing threat of Covid-19 was still there ). Officially, the confirmation of the third sequel became a thing when Sony confirmed that it is in development in April 2022 on their panel on CinemaCon.
Andy Serkis, despite beautifully capturing the essence of Venom and Carnage in the second film, which got critically praised, couldn’t make his return as a director of ‘The Last Dance’; the reason is due to his commitment as a director of Animal Farm film and both of the filming schedule being clashed on the same date. This made the debut of writer Kelly Marcel (Known for Her writings on films such as Saving Mr Banks’ Fifty Shades of Grey) as a director.
The film started its journey with principal photography in June 2023 in various locations of Spain, with the official filming starting in early August 2023 in London under the title of Orwell.
Initially, ‘The Last Dance’ was supposed to be released in the Summer of 2024 ( 12 July 2024 was the release date ); however, the particular release date had to shift its place when the filming of ‘The Last Dance’ got halted by the then ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike (Which was a strike that has called by the union of Hollywood actors due to various pay and work-related issues ) that made the film to resume his production in November 2023 which also led Sony to shift its release date from July 2024 to November 2024.
After successfully resuming its production in November 2024, ‘The Last Dance’ will continue to be filmed till March 2024 in London and later in New York City. The filming was officially wrapped up in mid-March 2024, and in this very same month, the release date of this film was brought earlier on October 25 2024.
The cast members
Tom Hardy, as usual, is back in the third part of the Venom saga, playing the smart and intelligent journalist Eddie Brock and the host of the childish, violent Symbiote named Venom. Besides Tom Hardy, some old cast members are also returning for the film, along with the addition of various new actors in the cast.
One of the old cast members in ‘The Last Dance’ is Stephen Graham, who is once again respiring his role as Patrick Mulligan (The detective who was investigating Cletus Kasady’s case in Venom 2 who got killed in the climax ), but this time he is no longer an ordinary detective as on the end credit of Venom 2 it is seen that one of the unknown Symbiotes (Identified as Toxin another Symbiote which belongs to the same planet as Venom ) revived him ultimately bonding with him as host.
Another old cast member from the previous installment who is returning in the film is Peggy Lu, who is reprising her role as Mrs Chen (Who is a relief or comedy character in the film, primarily a neighbor of Eddie Brock, who befriends Venom and their relationship is somewhat similar to Blind AI and Deadpool in the Deadpool films ).
However, ‘The Last Dance’ is filled with various new additions of cast members, and not only are the cast members very talented actors, but their roles are undisclosed, which is creating multiple fan theories and speculations about who might be the character they are playing. Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans and Chiwetel Ejiofor are among the three additions to the cast members who have a massive role in ‘The Last Dance’ as per the trailer and teasers, but their roles are undisclosed.
The trailer
The first trailer, as a mark for the beginning of the ‘The Last Dance’ promotions, was released in June 2024. The trailer in this process confirms that old cast members such as Peggy Lu and Stephen Graham are returning to their respective roles and provides the first look at the characters of Rhys Ifans, Alanna Ubach and Cristo Fernandez.
The appearance of Cristo Fernandez caused massive confusion among fans as he appeared in Spider-Man No Way Home ( The multiversal adventure of the MCU web-slinger where he crosses paths with old Spider-Man villains of Raimiverse and Tasmverse and also Spider-Man of both of these universes. Where Tom Hardy was also there, reprising his role of Eddie Brock in the post-credit scene ) as a character that resides in the MCU. However, since Venom: The Last Dance takes place in a universe different from that of MCU, this creates confusion among fans; many stated that Sony has zero knowledge about continuity as this thing breaks the continuity very badly.
The Final Trailer
To excite the fans more, Sony, on 12th September, released a final trailer that provided a more detailed insight into the plot. In the first scene of ‘The Last Dance’, it is seen that Eddie Brock is on the edge of a flying plane, with the character cheering him up and stating how they can fly before bonding with Eddie completely.
The next scene of ‘The Last Dance’ shows that they are being attacked in the plane by a gigantic creature ( The creature which is often associated with a common trope in films as cosmetic insects, the incest which originates from a faraway planet the example can be in this scenario is the creatures which have been saw on Predator film series ). The creature outsmarts them, and the main character replies they are in big trouble. Then it is revealed that the creature which attacked them is from the home of the main character (Teasing the appearance of Klytnar ), and they have found them. With a glimpse of these creatures with the voiceover
In the next scene, by the voiceover of venom, it is revealed that not only the creatures have found them but his creator has also got traces of them. The following scenes of ‘The Last Dance’ are just a couple of glimpses of the character of Chiwetel Ejiofor and an unknown female character discussing something in a lab wearing a military outfit. Then it is revealed by the dialogue of the character that the creator is Knull, a fan favorite character in Marvel comics (Often considered as Thanos for Spider-Man, and Venom also fought multiple times with Thor and Silver Surfer ) and made his debut in 2018.
It is also seen that the character is heavily scared of him, as when Eddie says his name, Venom tries to stop him. The next scene features a couple more scenes with Eddie Brock transforming into Venom. A dialogue is also heard from Venom where it is stated that Knull has made its way to Earth to obtain something Eddie or the character have.
The next scene of ‘The Last Dance’ shows that Eddie Brock beats someone in an alley because Venom wants them to have a disguise. For this act of Eddie, the character comments on what’s wrong with him. Then, it is seen that he has successfully taken the black tuxedo of that unknown person and is making his way to a casino dressing up in that outfit.
After a couple of more glimpses of Eddie fighting with these various cosmic creatures, the most exciting scene of ‘The Last Dance’ comes upon where it is seen that Venom has undertaken a horse as their host (Which is dubbed as Horsenom by fans ) which is used as a medium of transportation by Eddie. The next scene features Venom fighting another of those monster creatures. Eddie calls the character as if they are the bad guys and gives a glimpse towards Rhys Ifans character (That gets confirmed as Martin by subtitle ) on a bus where he says there comes a time in every man’s life where you have to make a sacrifice.
The trailer ends with Eddie repeatedly hitting up on a jackpot machine at the casino, stating that it is helping him get off all the problems of his life before the machine gets destroyed.
Some rumors about the film
Just like every anticipated film, especially if it is a film dealing with a superhero subject, there are various assumptions that automatically originate from fans or scoopers ( Who have a strong connection with someone inside the production house ).
‘The Last Dance’ in this process is also not exceptional. Various rumors about the film have been theorized by fans or scoopers like CanWeGetToast, MyTimeToShine, DanielRPK, etc, who have a very strong connection with the inside of the industry regarding this things and have an excellent accuracy record due to this.
The first rumor about it is the MCU connection. Sony, when they were developing this film, intended to set it on MCU (So do other films of Sony Spider-Man Universe ), with even Tom Holland appearing as a cameo (As repeatedly backed up by scoopers or people that were on the set ) as Peter Parker (He portrays the MCU version of Spider-Man since 2016) but due to some disagreement between Amy Pascal (The head of Sony’s film division) and Kevin Feige ( The president of Marvel Studios ) the cameo was scrapped from the film.
According to one of the rumors is that ‘The Last Dance’ now take place in the MCU; this was further backed by the appearance of the same bartender in the trailer that appeared on Spider-Man No Way Home (Which takes place entirely in the MCU) this happened due to when at the end of No Way Home when Doctor Strange cast the spell to forget the people about Peter Parker’s existence.
It accidentally merged Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and MCU (However it doesn’t explain if the issue regarding Chiwetel Ejiofor will be solved as he previously appeared on MCU as Karl Mondo a completely different character and now on Venom 3 as a military man which directly creates various issues regarding continuity ).
The next rumor about ‘The Last Dance’ is which character Chiwetel Ejiofor is playing. One of the rumors is that he is playing Flash Thompson in an entirely new take (Which is different from how Tony Revolori plays him on MCU). This was further backed up by his association with the US military (In the comics, Flash Thompson was the primary high school bully of Peter Parker, who later joined the army during the Vietnam War) .
And just like how, in the comics, he became Agent Venom in the midway of ‘The Last Dance’ he will on the attempt to capture Venom he will experiment himself with the Symbiote from Life Foundation ( The organization which appeared on the first part of this movie as a main antagonist and at the end of the film US Army seized the company) giving him the classic Agent Venom Power.
The third rumor on ‘The Last Dance’ is about the actor playing Knull. As in the trailer, only the back shot of Knull is seen (With his classic long blonde hair). It is stated that Rhys Ifans’s character is Knull, and him being Martin is his disguise on Earth for the mission to capture Venom and Eddie.
Another rumor is any big-name actor does not portray Knull; instead, it has been essayed by some stunt actor as a stand-in for ‘The Last Dance’ (Kind of like how Damien Poitier, a stuntman, did in Avengers film when before casting Josh Bronil the MCU used him as a stand-in of Thanos on the post-credit scene of the film )
The shot which has been seen on the trailer it is from the post-credit scene of ‘The Last Dance’ which will lead into the grand finale of SSU like some Avengers: Endgame type by loosely based on from the “King in Black” comics that was published from December 2020-April 2021 (Where Eddie Brock/Venom teamed up with other superheroes groups of Marvel Universe like Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-men and Thunderbolts to stop the invasion of Knull and his Symbiotes in Earth ).
There is one thing which fans have heavily criticized since the beginning of SSU: despite the universe being based on Spider-Man characters, there is no sign of Spider-Man anywhere (It is like making a film about Metallo, Parasite, Bizzaro, Jimmy Olsen, etc, the classic Superman villains and supporting character but never letting the Man Of Steel show up on screen) with only some teases (Like Madame Web ).
However, it is stated that Peter Parker will appear in ‘The Last Dance’, but no not as Spider-Man or between the ages which people are familiar with this character (15 to 20) or Andrew Garfield playing him (Which every fan wants but was reported in 2023 he repeatedly declined to appear in Venom: The Last Dance as Peter Parker ) instead Peter Parker will appear as a 10-year-old boy whom Eddie will befriend, but Venom will try to kill him ( Due to the Symbiotes have a multiverse connection with each variant of them and he is still remembered about the encounter which occurred in Raimi Verse on the 2007 film Spider-Man 3).
FAQ
When will Venom 3 be released?
Venom 3 is scheduled to be released on 25 October 2024.
Who is directing Venom: The Last Dance film?
Kelly Marcel is directing this film.
When did the development of the Venom film first occur?
The idea of a solo version of this film was convinced way back in the late 90s (When even Marvel films didn’t get the ground-breaking popularity like the present day ), which was supposed to be produced by New Line Cinemas and Dolph Lundgren ( Who mostly known for his brilliant take as an antagonist on the Rocky franchise as Ivan Drago ) was in talks to star in the titular role with Cletus Kassady /Carnage was supposed to be the big bad. However, these plans initially failed when Sony acquired the rights to Spider-Man from New Line Cinema.
Why Andy Serkis didn’t return to Venom 3 as a director?
Andy Serkis, despite beautifully capturing the essence of Venom and Carnage in the second film, which got critically praised, couldn’t make his return as a director of Venom: The Last Dance; the reason is due to his commitment as a director of Animal Farm film and both of the filming schedule being clashed on the same date. This made the debut of writer Kelly Marcel (Known for Her writings on films such as Saving Mr Banks’ Fifty Shades of Grey) as a director.
Will Toxin will Appear in Venom 3?
One of the old cast members in ‘The Last Dance’ is Stephen Graham, who is once again respiring his role as Patrick Mulligan (The detective who was investigating Cletus Kasady’s case in Venom 2 who got killed in the climax ), but this time he is no longer an ordinary detective as on the end credit of Venom 2 it is seen that one of the unknown Symbiotes (Identified as Toxin another Symbiote which belongs to the same planet as Venom ) revived him ultimately bonding with him as host.
Does Venom 3 take place in the MCU?
According to one of the rumors is that ‘The Last Dance’ now take place in the MCU; this was further backed by the appearance of the same bartender in the trailer that appeared on Spider-Man No Way Home (Which takes place entirely in the MCU) this happened due to when at the end of No Way Home when Doctor Strange cast the spell to forget the people about Peter Parker’s existence it accidentally merged Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and MCU.
What is the character of Chiwetel Ejiofor in Venom: The Last Dance film?
One of the rumors is that he is playing Flash Thompson in an entirely new take (Which is different from how Tony Revolori plays him on MCU).
Who is playing Knull in Venom 3?
It is stated that Rhys Ifans’s character is Knull, and him being Martin is his disguise on Earth for the mission to capture Venom and Eddie.
Will Spider-Man will appear in Venom: The Last Dance film?
Peter Parker will appear as a 10-year-old boy whom Eddie will befriend, but Venom will try to kill him ( Due to the Symbiotes having a multiverse connection with each variant of them and he is still remembered about the encounter which occurred in Raimi Verse in the 2007 film Spider-Man 3).
