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Jenny Slate in Talks to Join Sony’s ‘Venom’

Another awesome person may feature in Tom Hardy’s new superhero movie.
By  · Published on October 4th, 2017

Another awesome person may feature in Tom Hardy’s new superhero movie.

Yet another ex-DC cast member has boarded Sony’s Venom project. Snagging Tom Hardy was a feat in and of itself. Hardy memorably played Bane in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and was once tapped to be in in Suicide Squad. (Who isn’t glad he passed up that second one in the end?) Now, Jenny Slate — a.k.a Harley Quinn in Chris McKay’s The LEGO Batman Movie — is in talks to portray an undisclosed character in Venom, per Variety.

Sony has been slowly courting a fabulous cast for Venom. Riz Ahmed (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) was first reported to be negotiating to play a role in August. Just a week ago, Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea) was announced to be in talks to portray Venom’s potential love interest in the film. Slate is tapped to play an unnamed scientist. Going for such acclaimed dramatic actors really sets the bar high for the Venom film already. Even Slate, who has far more comedic credits to her name compared to the others, has balanced out the laughs with her layered performances, particularly in films like Obvious Child and Gifted.

Sony has determinedly been pining after the perfect Venom adaptation for years. Considering the character’s popularity in the originating comics, it isn’t tough to imagine why. Antihero stories go far in general anyway, even onscreen. Audiences most recently got a taste of that fact in Season 2 of Marvel’s Daredevil, which introduced Frank Castle — The Punisher — as a counterpoint to series protagonist Matt Murdock. People loved him so much that Marvel/Netflix gave him his own show.

Sony seems to be doing the opposite, in this case, introducing Eddie Brock/Venom in a standalone feature before possibly integrating him into future Spider-Man films. However, Venom’s onscreen history has experienced fits and starts nonetheless. The character, played by Topher Grace, made an appearance in the messy third installment of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series. Venom also cameo-ed at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This was meant to tease a wider universe Sony had planned prior to its second retcon of the Spider-Man franchise. A Venom spin-off was in development by Alex Kurtzman and a team of writers had been in the works at the time, alongside a Sinister Six movie that would have been penned and directed by Drew Goddard.

But they say third time’s the charm and so far, things have worked in Sony’s favor. Allowing Peter Parker straddle both the Avengers universe and his own partially separate realm was phenomenally received this past summer. From there, Sony’s Marvel Universe began to take a more concrete form and it became far easier to get excited about Venom‘s potential. Not long now until one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes hits the big screen. Venom is set to premiere October 5, 2018.

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Sheryl Oh often finds herself fascinated (and let's be real, a little obsessed) with actors and their onscreen accomplishments, developing Film School Rejects' Filmographies column as a passion project. She's not very good at Twitter but find her at @sherhorowitz anyway. (She/Her)