When the official title for Venom: Let There Be Carnage was released, it signaled that the sequel was going to lean into the inherent absurdity and cheesiness that the original tried to shy away from. At points, Ruben Fleischer’s opener took itself far too seriously, even though it was an origin story for an odd couple formed of a neurotic reporter and an alien parasite.
The moniker for Andy Serkis’ follow up was so bold, brazen and obvious that it’s perfectly fitting, with the majority of reviews praising Let There Be Carnage for the way it fully embraces the weirdness of the premise. However, in a new interview with Collider, the director revealed that he was originally planning on taking the concept even further by naming the movie after a Joy Division song.
“We did think for a moment it might be called Love Will Tear Us Apart, that was a going concern for a little while. But Let There Be Carnage just seems to do it. There wasn’t a lot of fighting over the other titles we were thinking of. Because this was such a strong contender.”
Venom: Love Will Tear Us Apart is even more out-there, but you’d imagine the Sony marketing department would have been much happier to see Cletus Kasady’s alter ego front and center in the title. After all, the major selling point of Let There Be Carnage is seeing the two comic book icons throw down in live-action for the first time, something that wouldn’t be hammered home hard enough were the Marvel adaptation named after a 1980 single by the British post-punk band.