For a few years now, Tom Hardy has pretty much been campaigning openly for any kind of franchise. He’s openly discussed how he’d like to play James Bond. Whenever reporters bring up a casting rumors about a superhero, he always says nice thing about how it would be great to be considered for that kind of role. You can tell that he enjoyed playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, and that he’d like to do anything like that again. So… good news for Tom Hardy. Sony has just cast him as Venom, in what will be a “Spider-man offshoot.”

Sony has ensnared a star and director for its Spider-Man offshoot, Venom. Tom Hardy, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work in The Revenant, is in final negotiations to star in Venom, while Ruben Fleischer, best known for directing Zombieland, is final negotiations to helm the movie project centering on one of Spider-Man’s signature villains. The project is one of Sony’s top priorities and the studio is not wasting time as the movie is set to open Oct. 5, 2018.

Venom is to usher in a host of movies from Sony’s Marvel and Spider-Man-based universe of characters. Sony is rebooting its Marvel-based slate with this summer’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and Venom is a key title in its slate. The studio is also developing a Silver Sable/Black Cat project among other characters from the Spider-Man stable.

Venom has been one of Marvel’s top villains and a Spider-Man fixture since he was introduced in 1988, created by writer David Michelinie and artists Todd McFarlane and Mike Zeck. The character is an alien symbiote that needs a human host to survive. In return, the alien vests its victim with incredible powers. He made his first big-screen appearance in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 and was portrayed by Topher Grace.

Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, the latter of whom worked on 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, wrote the script for Venom. Plot details are being kept in the black but Hardy, who is said to be a Venom fan, will play Eddie Brock, the character who first became Venom.

[From THR]

While Spider-Man and that universe aren’t my particular cup of tea – why was the Green Goblin so scary, really? – this Venom project sounds sort of cool. The pedigree is interesting too – the whole reason why we’re getting another f–king Spider-Man movie is because of something tricky with the rights to those characters and how they’ve reverted back to Marvel, but only sort of or something. I don’t know, superhero legal logistics aren’t my forte. Basically, Venom is a Sony property and Sony will profit from it, but Marvel gets some input because these characters are part of the MCU. I think? It’s very complicated.

Here’s a promotional image of Tom Hardy from Sony. Does this excite you? I imagine a lot of fan-boys and fan-girls are quite excited about this.

Tom Hardy is Eddie Brock in #Venom, the upcoming film from Sony’s Marvel Universe releasing October 5, 2018 – production starts this fall. pic.twitter.com/OZQqDEvoum

— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) May 19, 2017

Photos courtesy of WENN>