According to the actor himself, audiences shouldn't expect to see Riz Ahmed in Venom 2. Ahmed played antagonist Carlton Drake (a.k.a Riot) in 2018's Venom, which starred Tom Hardy as journalist Eddie Brock, who bonds with an alien symbiote to become the titular antihero. The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is scheduled to release in June 2021 after COVID-19 pushed it out of its original spot in October 2020.
As the first Asian man to win an acting Emmy for his performance in HBO's 2014 miniseries The Night Of, the British-Pakistani Ahmed has been a rising star since his breakout role in Nightcrawler the same year, and that trajectory has only continued in 2020. While he's earned some praise for his work in Mogul Mowgli, which he also produced and co-wrote, it's Ahmed's performance in Sound of Metal as a drummer that suffers rapid hearing loss that is earning him Oscar buzz. He's also no stranger to big Hollywood franchises, and along with Riot in Venom, Star Wars fans might recognize him as Imperial defector Bodhi Rook in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
After Venom caused the probe carrying Ahmed's character to explode at the end of the first movie, his time in the Venom franchise seemed over, but some still wondered if he would pop up again in the sequel - after all, death is often far from the end in the world of superheroes. However, in a recent interview on the back of Sound of Metal, Ahmed took a second to confirm that it was indeed as bad as it looked. "I think I'm done in Venom," he told THR. "It's pretty conclusive. Dude got blown up in a spaceship." Elsewhere in the interview, Ahmed said he hasn't heard anything about joining a Rogue One prequel movie or series either, meaning he has no blockbuster projects currently on the horizon.
While Ahmed's Riot won't be returning in Venom 2, Hardy and Michelle Williams, who played Anne Weying (and briefly teased her alter-ego She-Venom), are both slated to reprise their roles. Woody Harrelson, who appeared in a post-credits scene as Cletus Cassady (a.k.a Carnage), is expected to play a major role in the story, hence the sequel's official title, Venom: Let There Be Carnage. British actress Naomie Harris has been announced as Shriek, the canonical Spider-Man villain and Cassady-love interest, while Stephen Graham and Sean Delaney join the cast in currently unannounced roles. Andy Serkis, famous for his legendary motion-capture performances, will succeed Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) as director.
With Ahmed blowing up as he is, many fans probably see Riot's death at the end of Venom as a missed opportunity for the franchise, but others might be happy to see Venom 2 move on. As talented as Ahmed is, the reaction to Carlton Drake/Riot as a character was mixed, and Carnage offers a much more exciting opportunity to take Sony's cinematic Spider-verse to the next level. However, the studio mishandled its previous chance at a non-MCU Spider-Man series, and if that happens again with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, not giving an actor like Ahmed a juicier role in the first place could be looked back on as a key reason why.
Source: THR
