‘Venom 3’ Gets Its Title, Moves Release Up to October

Sony and Columbia Pictures unveiled the title of the third installment of its hit Marvel antihero saga “Venom,” as “Venom: The Last Dance” is getting its release date moved up two weeks to Oct. 25.

Tom Hardy will return as Eddie Brock and Venom alongside Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor in undisclosed roles. Kelly Marcel returns as screenwriter for the film and will also make her directorial debut. Hardy, Marcel, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal and Hutch Parker are producers.

“Venom: The Last Dance” will have Imax and premium format support as it joins a Halloween week release slate that includes Universal/Blumhouse’s remake of “The Wolf Man” starring Christopher Abbott and the third installment of the gory indie slasher series “Terrifier.”

“Venom” follows down-on-his-luck San Francisco journalist Eddie Brock whose life is changed when he accidentally gets merged with an alien creature named Venom, a symbiote who can take over his host’s body and become an immense creature that devours his victims. The two form a relationship as Eddie agrees to let Venom feed on humanity as long as his targets are dangerous criminals, while Venom in return vows to protect Earth from even more hostile symbiotes.

While getting mixed reviews from critics, “Venom” has built up a fanbase that has embraced the dark, sometimes campy humor from Hardy’s performance as both Eddie and Venom, with some fans embracing their relationship as a potentially romantic one. Sony has embraced that interpretation of the films with tongue-in-cheek commercials selling them as a romantic comedy.

Hardy last appeared as Eddie in a mid-credits cameo in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” where he briefly visited the Marvel Cinematic Universe before getting pulled back to his home timeline.

While it did not post as high a box office total as the first “Venom” due to a lack of support from China, the 2021 sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” had a solid run in theaters during the pandemic recovery period, opening to $90 million in North America and grossing $506 million worldwide.