Not many (if any) were happy with the way Venom turned out in Spider Man 3, but artist/writer/entrepreneur Todd Mcfarlane thinks it highly likely that the black suited beastie may be appearing on out screens again..maybe sooner than we think.
“I co-created Venom,” he told MTV news “He was in the last ‘Spider-Man’ movie. And I think he might make an appearance here in the next one, too.”
He doesnt say how he might know this, or even if he has anything to do with Raimis 4th installment in the franchise, but he does say that he watched closely as director Sam Raimi developed his alien symbiote character into a role for Topher Grace in the 2007 blockbuster; but as the filmmaker sought to draw a light/dark comparison between the similarly-built Grace and Tobey Maguire, he dropped the ball on a few of the character’s key elements.
“He’s one of the more popular villains of the last ten, fifteen years,” McFarlane explained, offering his advice on the how Venom could be corrected for “Spider-Man 4,” his own spin-off and beyond. “Given that I created him, I have a little bit of a bias.”
“I would’ve done a few things different,” McFarlane said of the shortcomings that hindered the movie version of Venom. “When I first created him, I made him huge. That would’ve been the first thing for me; I would’ve wanted somebody who looked like he was three times the size of Spider-Man, so it was almost like Spider-Man going against the Hulk. [I want] someone who is really formidable; whenever you have a skinny character against a big one it’s like ‘Woah, I’m going to have to work today.’ But instead, the two of them were about the same size.”
Furthermore, McFarlane offered: “I would’ve done something more dramatic. [I also would’ve increased] the nastiness; I never cared too much about the comics code. I always pushed the envelope until the editor said ‘You’d better pull that back.’”
Among the many classic titles that McFarlane worked on over the years is Wolverine, and when he spoke with MTV, he insisted that the success of that character shows that audiences are ready for a big, bad, bloody Venom.
“I think one of the reasons why Wolverine is so popular is because he did stuff that Captain America or Batman would never do,” McFarlane explained, hoping Venom is properly beefed-up and unleashed in the next “Spider-Man” film. “Today’s generation, they can handle that stuff.”
They sure can Todd. But to me this sounds more like wishful thinking than anything else. We know Raimi never wanted Venom in the last movie in the first place, so its unlikely he will put him in the next one..still, stranger things have been known to happen! Im willing to bet Topher Grace wont be reprising the role though.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.