Venom 3 has found its director in Kelly Marcel. The franchise centers on a disgraced journalist named Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), who eventually bonds with a space symbiote named Venom (Hardy). Brock gains these amazing abilities but also has to deal with an alien who likes eating people. Together, the two have had to save the world from various forces of evil, which are often other evil symbiotes.

Previously, both films had two different directors. Reuben Fleischer, who recently directed Uncharted, starring Tom Holland and Mark Whalberg, handled the first movie. He also directed both Zombieland movies. A recurring element between both Zombieland and Venom is that they both had Woody Harrelson in the cast. In the previous films, the actor played supervillain Cletus Kasady/Carnage.

Andy Serkis directed Venom: Let There Be Carnage. While he first rose to fame with his motion capture work, Serkis has since gone on to direct several different films. After serving as s second unit director for The Hobbit films, where he reprised his breakout role as Gollum, his directorial debut was with the 2017 film Breathe. Next, he went on to help Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, where he also played Baloo. He'll next be handling an adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

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A Little Bit About Marcel and Venom

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Marcel, meanwhile, has been involved with the Sony superhero franchise since the beginning. She served as a writer on Venom (2018) alongside Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, the latter two who came up with the story. Marcell also served as the sole screenwriter on the 2021 sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, though she developed the story alongside star Tom Hardy.

Besides that, Marcel wrote the script for Fifty Shades of Grey, though she did not return for either of the sequels, which were written by Niall Leonard instead. For Disney, Marcell also co-wrote the script for Saving Mr. Bank with Sue Smith and helped develop the story for Cruella. Of course, the script for the latter film was written by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara.

On his social media profile, Tom Hardy revealed that he once again collaborated with Marcel on writing the script for Venom 3. According to Deadline, insiders say that Hardy and Marcel have always been on the same page when shaping Venom’s story and know exactly the direction they would like to head in when making the sequel.

Plot details for the third installment have yet to be revealed, though the ending of Venom: Let There Be Carnage left a few possibilities open. Midway through the sequel, Brock ends up being arrested due to his connection to many strange occurrences. Instead of being cleared, the film ends with him and Venom on the run as fugitives, which opens up all kinds of storytelling potential.

The film’s end also sees Detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) surviving his apparent death with glowing blue eyes. In the comics, he gains his own symbiote named Toxin, who was the offspring of Carnage. Why and how that could have been possible for the film version has yet to be revealed, however, leaving open the possibility that his powers might come from a different source in the film continuity.

Cletus’ bride Frances Barrison/Shriek (Naomie Harris), had a very opened ended demise in the same film as well. We see a bell fall on her. Except it’s with the bottom down and with the clapper torn out. That’s ambiguous enough that it leaves open the possibility of her surviving and being able to return for a sequel.

Who from the previous films besides Hardy that will be making a return has yet to be seen, however. Besides the duties already gone over, Marcel and Hardy will also produce the movie alongside Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, and Hutch Parker. Stay tuned for further developments on Venom 3 as we at Movieweb get them.