Venom: Let There Be Carnage is actually a queer love story with a groundbreaking coming out scene
Venom: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis says the new film will centre around the “love affair” between the alien Venom and the human host, Eddie Brock. (YouTube/ShortClips/Sony Pictures)
The new Venom film will centre around a “love affair” between Eddie Brock and the symbiote, even featuring a “coming out party” for Venom.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis told Uproxx about an interesting scene where the alien, Venom, attends a rave without his human host Eddie Brock (both played by Tom Hardy). In the scene, Venom opens up about how much he missed Eddie because they just had an argument.
Serkis explained the scene was based on an LGBT+ festival and was “Venom’s coming out party”.
“It was originally going to be a carnival of the damned and it ended up being Tom had got to know Little Simz, who’s a brilliant rapper and also stars in the movie,” Serkis told Uproxx.
He added that Little Simz made a song titled “Venom” that “connected very much with the first movie” so Hardy contacted her and the “song became sort of the focus”.
“Well, Tom and [co-writer] Kelly [Marcel] were always about Venom coming out and going to a party that was a very sort of an LGBTQIA kind of festival, really, I’d call it, and so this is his coming out party basically,” Serkis said. “This is Venom’s coming-out party.”
He told Uproxx that there was a parallel between this story and the lived experiences of queer people.
“Well, what is interesting is that it’s just like, here he is kind of, he says in the movie, ‘We must stop this cruel treatment of aliens,’” Serkis shared. “He said, ‘You know, we all live on this ball of rock,’ you know?”
He added: “And so he inadvertently becomes a kind of… he’s speaking for the other. He’s speaking for freedom of the other.”
Venom: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis says the new film will centre around the “love affair” between Eddie Brock and the symbiote. (YouTube/TopMovieClips/Sony Pictures)
Later in the interview, Serkis explained that Eddie Brock and the symbiote deeply love each other, saying their love is the “center of the movie”.
“Absolutely they do love each other and that’s the kind of the centre of the movie is that love affair, that central love affair,” Serkis said.
Serkis revealed in the production notes for the Venom sequel that, rather than a traditional romantic love story, the film is about the “extraordinary relationship between symbiote and host”, Comic Book reported.
“The film is a love story – but not the love story you might think,” Serkis said in the notes. “It’s very much about the extraordinary relationship between symbiote and host.”
He wrote that “any love affair has its pitfalls”, and Venom and Eddie’s relationship “absolutely causes problems and stress”. But regardless of their “near-hatred for each other”, they “can’t live without each other”.
“That’s companionship – love – the things that relationships are really about,” Serkis added.
The love-hate relationship between Eddie Brock and Venom isn’t anything new to comic book fans.
In the comics, Eddie is a journalist who comes into contact with an alien symbiote that was originally rejected by Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. The symbiote bonds with Eddie, and they become Venom.
The comics often delve into the chaotic, animated relationship between the man and the alien beast.
After years together, the 2018 comic Venom #164 added a new level to Eddie and the symbiote’s relationship – parenthood.
According to CBR, the story opened by delving into how intertwined Eddie and Venom’s consciousnesses are. Eddie begins having dreams about Venom’s previous offspring, and he questions the alien about the disturbing dreams. But the alien brushed off the nightmares as just products of Eddie’s subconsciousness.
However, later in the comic, Eddie finds out that Venom is spawning so they’re about to become parents.
ScreenRant explained the baby is delivered in Venom #165, and Eddie protected the alien while Venom was giving birth to the baby symbiote. According to the outlet, Eddie later bonds with this child then Venom entrusted him to raise.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens in theatres on 1 October.
