Full 'Venom' Trailer Shows Off The Anti-Hero Symbiote

Spider-Man villain/anti-hero Venom has long been a fan favorite, but bringing him to the big screen has proven difficult. The last attempt, let’s just say it didn’t go well. But there’s a new incarnation on the way, and while the initial teaser a while back left people wondering if we’d actually see the iconic symbiote, the new full Tom Hardy-starring Venom trailer leaves no doubt in that realm.

It’s admittedly going to be weird to see Venom without Spider-Man at least making an appearance. Thought there have been rumors that Tom Holland’s Spidey could cameo, but who the hell knows if that’s real or not. This is still a Sony joint, so that sounds like a difficult deal to make. But they do own the rights to characters like Black Cat and Silver Sable, among others. We could see some Spider-Man characters without actually seeing Spider-Man—especially because this takes place in San Francisco, the opposite coast from the Wall Crawler. Logistically, that makes a degree of sense.

Watching this Venom trailer, it’s easy to see why Tom Hardy was attracted to the role. Reporter Eddie Brock is a conflicted, tormented character, one who gets to do some cool action shit and toe the line between hero and villain. That’s rich territory for the actor to mine.

Zombieland (and 30 Minutes or Less and Gangster Squad) director Ruben Fleischerhelms this film. While that doesn’t mean all that much to me, he’s assembled a fantastic cast to surround Hardy. Michelle Williams plays the love interest, Riz Ahmed plays the big bad evil business tycoon, Jenny Slate shows up as a whistleblower, and some rumors even have Woody Harrelson playing Carnage. Again, that last one is pure conjecture, but it sounds awesome. The music in Venom should also be great, and we get a taste of it in this trailer. Black Panther and Creed composer Ludwig Goransson handled the score.

Venom opens on October 5.