Sony’s Venom film franchise is heading in a new direction, with an animated movie based on the iconic anti-hero in the works from Final Destination: Bloodlines directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the duo will be in charge of directing the first animated movie based on the character, with the project also involving various key figures of the live-action Venom movies, including lead actor Tom Hardy, who’s now stepping in as a producer, alongside other returning producers Amy Pascal, Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach.
While no writers have been attached to the project yet, Sony’s animation arm, Sony Pictures Animation, is opening up a writers’ room to develop its script. The studio had previously found success in its animated endeavours with the Spider-Verse movies, so following suit with Venom instead shouldn’t come as much surprise.
The iconic black Symbiote received his first feature film in 2018’s Venom, which saw Hardy take on the role of journalist Eddie Brock, who bonds with the symbiotic alien to take down the villainous CEO of the Life Foundation, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). The film was a massive success, garnering US$856 million at the worldwide box office, cementing the popularity of the character. Despite its initial success, the franchise would then take a downward spiral with its two sequels, 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage and 2024’s Venom: The Last Dance, failing to reach the same heights as the original, so shifting the franchise to the animated space may prove to be a breath of fresh air.
The involvement of Lipovsky and Stein might also prove beneficial for the project, as the duo knows a thing or two about reviving ailing franchises. With Bloodlines, they successfully recaptured the magic of the long-running Final Destination franchise after 14 years of dormancy, resulting in not just the highest-grossing entry in the franchise, but also the best-received, so here’s hoping they can do the same for Venom.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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