Venom will come face to face with another symbiote enemy in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but Sony should change the game in subsequent movies, and its perfect villain is in a recent comic book event. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues expanding its connected universe, Sony is still building its own universe of Marvel characters, which began with Venom in 2018. The movie gave Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the famous symbiote another chance on the big screen after their failed debut in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, and while it wasn’t well-received by critics, it was a hit with viewers, prompting the studio to greenlight a sequel.

Venom tells the origin story of the title symbiote and its bonding with journalist Eddie Brock during an investigation of the experiments at Life Foundation which involved humans and symbiotic life forms. Together they fought against Life Foundation’s leader, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), and Riot, the symbiote he bonded with. The mid-credits scene in Venom teased the arrival of Carnage through the appearance of serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), who in the comics bonded with that symbiote, and was later confirmed to be the villain of the sequel, appropriately titled Venom: Let There Be Carnage. While fans were hoping to see Carnage in the first movie and having it as the villain in the sequel isn’t bad, Sony should avoid having symbiotes as Venom’s antagonists in every movie, and there’s a particular storyline the studio should consider for a third movie and beyond.

Related: Venom: Why The Reviews Were So Negative

Venom has been around for over three decades and thus has been involved in all types of problems and adventures, and while he has been Spider-Man’s enemy many, many times, he doesn’t depend on the web-slinger to tell a good story. While Venom having Riot as the villain was fun and Carnage has a lot of potential, Sony risks overusing symbiotes as villains and thus losing the attention of the audience, but it can follow the example of the MCU and pave the way for a big event, and in Venom’s case, it could be the King in Black storyline, written by Donny Cates and published between December 2020 and March 2021.

Knull Marvel Comics

In it, Eddie and Venom – along with many other heroes whose rights are on Disney’s hands – confront Knull, an evil deity and creator of the symbiotes. Knull used the first symbiote, All-Black, to kill one of the Celestials, which prompted the rest to banish him and the severed head of his victim into the Void. Now, the King in Black event is all about the arrival of Knull to Earth as he was looking to take control of Venom again, and he eventually ripped the symbiote off Eddie. Given that there have already been three symbiotes on Earth (Venom, Riot, and Carnage), this could be an excellent primer for the arrival of Knull in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters and the beginning of the King in Black event, which can start as early as in Venom 3.

Knull and the King in Black storyline could also make way for the highly anticipated crossover with Spider-Man, who plays an important role in the story and is the only character from the comic books that can appear in both the MCU and Sony’s Marvel universe. This would not only be an interesting story to watch and one that can boost the Sony Marvel universe but it would also avoid landing on the mistake of using different symbiotes as enemies in every Venom movie, which could bore the audience and bring the whole franchise down.

Next: How Venom 2 Can Set Up Spider-Man 3's Multiverse Story

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