Venom arrives in theaters this Fall, but director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Gangster Squad) already has his mind on the future. While visiting San Diego Comic-Con, Fleischer revealed in an interview with Comicbook.com that he has already planned sequels for the film. "We've definitely laid some groundwork for different directions that the franchise could go but obviously it all hinges on people's excitement about this film. I hope people will stay and see what seeds have been planted."
Venom is a symbiote that first attaches himself to Spider-Man before being ripped off and merging with Eddie Brock. In the comics, Venom serves as an anti-hero. An anti-hero is just a fancy term for a superhero that kills and conducts business more brutally than your average hero (think Punisher, Wolverine, Deadpool). Since Spider-Man is currently serving Sony's deal with Disney and appearing alongside the Avengers, Peter Parker is not likely to appear in Venom. His story will be altered, but there are entire storylines in the comics where Venom plays a hero in a separate part of the nation than Spider-Man.
"I'm a huge fan of comic book movies so I just tried to pick a lane that was true to the character," Fleischer stated while trying to explain his vision for the film. "I think inherent to the character, he's just darker, and we talked about more violent. It's just tonally different from everything else, especially when you're focusing on just Venom. He's not a sunshine kind of guy. So, it takes place at night. It's darker. More menacing. I think that within the spectrum of all these movies, there's the DC super dark, Zack Snyder type version and then there's the Marvel movies and I like to think that we're in our own zone apart from that."
Venom hits theaters on October 5.