Comic legend Rob Liefeld has some thoughts on the first Venom teaser—and they're not positive. It's been a little over a year since Sony shocked fans by announcing a Venom movie. Despite the studio's partnership with Marvel to bring Spider-Man to the MCU, Sony clearly had plans to continue telling stories involving the heroes and villains under their purview. And while bad memories of Spider-Man 3 swam in the minds of fans, the news of Tom Hardy starring in and Ruben Fleischer directing Venom put some at ease.
Eight months out from the release of Venom and little from the film had been seen. That all changed yesterday when the first Venom poster arrived and teased the release of a trailer today. Not only were fans ready to see Hardy in action, but a first glimpse of Venom and even Carnage seemed a safe bet. Instead, the first Venom trailer had merely a fleeting shot of the Symbiote in a containment unit and the rest was preoccupied with Hardy's attempt at a New York accent and some motorcycle stunts. Naturally, fans across social media are livid, and they're not alone.
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Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld took to Twitter to express his disappointment with Sony over the Venom trailer and its lack of, well, Venom. He also intimates that Sony has been contacting writers who have negatively publicized the trailer, saying the studio only has itself to blame.
As to why Venom wasn't in the Venom trailer, it seems Sony wanted a teaser in front of Black Panther considering how big the superhero film is set to be. Meanwhile, a full trailer may run before Avengers: Infinity War or Deadpool 2. To hit that timetable, it seems the effects-heavy Venom had to be left out given the film's production has been relatively rushed under Sony. Still, it's not as if at least one quick shot of the character couldn't have been engineered in time for the film. After all, Adi Shankar's Venom short film did a pretty convincing job on a relatively small budget 5 years ago.
By keeping Venom out of his own movie, most viewers won't have a clue what the film is about. Though he is a popular member of Spider-Man's rogues gallery, some casual audiences may not know who Venom is, even after his appearance in Spider-Man 3. As such, Venom's teaser looks like a generic political thriller of some sort, possibly about a deadly virus or contagion.
It was already going to be tricky for the film to dance around not having Spider-Man be tied to the character's origin, but leaving out the titular anti-hero altogether was never bound to go over well with fans. Hopefully, Sony will realize their mistake and work on putting out an official image or even a brief video on social media to highlight Hardy as Venom before too long, or else Venom the film might not hit theaters with much goodwill.
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Source: Rob Liefeld
