Tom Hardy Playing Venom in Upcoming Spider-Man Spinoff Movie

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

What do you get the man who has everything? Why his own franchise, of course! Oscar nominated actor Tom Hardy—well known for his super selective tastes when picking projects—has chucked that reputation to the wind and signed on to play Eddie Brock, aka Venom, in an upcoming spin-off film centered around the Spider-Man villain. 

The just-announced film is set to be directed by Zombieland helmer Ruben Fleischer and is scheduled to be released on October 5, 2018. Now, a couple of points of clarification are necessary. This is not related to the new Spider-Man of Civil War and Homecoming. That's Marvel's Spider-Man. This is Sony's Spider-Man, and Sony most recently flushed their Spidey down the toilet after Amazing Spider-Man 2 got a scathing fan reaction. Last we heard they were working on an animated Spider-Man film featuring Miles Morales as the webslinger rather than Peter Parker. Now it looks like they're pushing their Spider-Man cinematic universe back into the spotlight. 

Don't get me wrong, Tom Hardy is a great actor and I'm eager to see what tics and mumbles he busts out for this role, I just don't know if Venom is the way to reboot your franchise. Anyone remember what happened the last time we saw Venom on screen? 

Yeah, the bar's super low.