It wasn’t a Superbowl spot, but it probably didn’t have to be. Sony’s Venom premieres this Fall and the anticipation is high. The idea’s been bounced around several times, throughout the years. After the failure of Spider-Man 3, it seemed to lose a bit of steam. It only got back on track within the last two years. And despite issues delaying production until late last October, the film finally has a trailer.
There’s plenty to unpack in this video, alone. Perhaps the most obvious thing is the absence of the title character. Yes, the trailer does feature Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock. However, it only features a small glimpse of anything even resembling a symbiote. And even then, that symbiote isn’t attached to anyone… yet. There are a handful of things that could be said about this. Several theories as to why Venom isn’t shown in the trailer and several reactions to be had.
On the one hand, Venom only entered production in October. Thus the movie’s actually moved through that stage fairly quickly. So one of the easier reasons to believe is that Venom isn’t in the trailer because the animation simply isn’t done yet. This easily works to Sony’s advantage because it allows them to develop a sense of mystery around the character. What will he look like? How will he move? How will they portray his voice? There are plenty of questions to be had in that department and it’s a clever way to keep people thinking and talking about it. But, on the other hand, there’s the very warranted concern of the fans.
Those who remember Spider-Man 3 likely remember the film’s insistence on peeling back Venom’s mask in nearly every speaking part the character had in the interest of giving Topher Grace more face time (that he didn’t need), providing few chances to witness the character in all his glory.
Tom Hardy is admittedly a far better choice for the role than Topher Grace, at least in terms of physicality. But with the absence of Venom in the actual trailer, many fans will be understandably worried that the movie could suffer the same issue. And in a world that gave audiences Dredd, the need for the actor to have face time is just not an excuse for this.
Hopefully the character will be given a satisfactory amount of screentime in full garb. We’ll just have to wait and see when Venom hits theaters in October.
