Sony’s films based on Spider-Man and related properties have struggled before critics, but that hasn’t stopped them from spawning a commercially successful Venom franchise starring Tom Hardy in the title role of the Marvel Comics antihero.
The first Venom film was directed by Ruben Fleischer, and although it was slammed by critics, the film was loved by fans and did so well at the box office that a sequel was immediately greenlit.
After the success of the first film, Andy Serkis stepped in to direct the second film. While Andy Serkis is best known as an actor for his roles as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films and most recently as Alfred in Matt Reeves’ Batman film, Andy Serkis also has directing experience.
Andy’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage was even more successful than the first part and it was clear that the series would become a trilogy. Unfortunately, Andy refused to return to direct the untitled third Venom film, and the job was given to Kelly Marcell.
In a recent interview with SlashFilm, Andy revealed his reason for not taking the job with the following words:
“Look, I had a lot of fun [Venom: Let There Be Carnage]. Tom Hardy is such a good friend of mine and I took great pride in the work and we had so much fun doing it. Being the manager of this franchise for a while was great. I have so many projects that I was just at it [work on], such as ‘Animal Farm’. We were about to get it into production, but then we got delayed when Venom came out. I really need to be up there with those I’ve been building for so long. But I am very happy that Kelly is doing this. She’s so in control of the material with Tom. They’re such a great team to work with. I’m really excited to see what they come up with.”
Venom 3 is currently in development and has no release date or title at this time.
