2018’s Venom may have disappointed critics but audiences loved it. The film grossed $856 million at the box office, making that teaser scene featuring Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady/Carnage certain to lead to a sequel. But for a while, things went quiet on Venom 2. In retrospect, this may have been a result of behind-the-scenes negotiations on the future of Spider-Man in the MCU, but we now know that the film is set to shoot early next year and is targeting an October 1st, 2020 release date.
We also now have an indication as to who else will be in the movie, as Deadline is reporting that “two sources close to the project” have told them that Shriek will feature as the pic’s second villain. First appearing in 1993, Shriek is Carnage’s lover, an insane supervillainess with psychic abilities and sound manipulation powers that make her a deadly foe for any symbiote. She was introduced as a patient in the Ravencroft mental institution and was released by Carnage during his own escape. The homicidal pair hit it off and soon went on a killing spree, with Shriek using her powers to force innocent people to murder one another. What a lovely couple, eh?
If Venom 2 were to follow this storyline, then it’d also be a neat little callback to Natural Born Killers, in which Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis played a similarly murderous twosome. And hey, if they do need someone to portray Shriek, then Lewis could knock it out of the park. However, as of yet the role has not been cast, though the producers have said that they’re “looking mostly at unknowns right now.”
And who knows, we might even see Tom Holland’s Spider-Man making an appearance in Venom 2 if the rumors of Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters and the MCU having some cross-pollination turn out to be true. Fingers crossed.