Venom: The Last Dance featured the live-action debut of the King in Black and God of the Symbiotes, Knull. Played by Andy Serkis, the big bad sent his Xenophage to Earth in a bid to retrieve Eddie Brock and Venom's Codex so he could be freed from his prison on Klyntar.
It didn't work out for the villain but the movie ended with a mid-credits scene driving home what a threat Knull could still be to the universe should he escape.
Now, Karl Lindberg has shared his designs for Knull, explaining, "Worked directly with Writer/Director Kelly Marcel to design this creepy villain. Love how he came out in the movie."
We'd argue that this version is far more terrifying than the one briefly glimpsed in Venom: The Last Dance and you'll notice that Lindberg found a way to incorporate that iconic logo on Knull's chest (we're still not sure whether that made it into the Sony Pictures movie as Knull spent most of his screentime sitting down).
When we spoke to writer and director Kelly Marcel last month, she talked in detail about the process of bringing Knull to the big screen.
"So Knull actually was the first character we went in to design for this movie," the filmmaker explains in the video at the bottom of this article. "Before Venom-Horse...Xenophage and Knull were the first two [characters] that went into the works in terms of design. We knew we had to get Knull right. He's a massive, massive fan favourite. We wanted to stick as close to the comics as possible in terms of what he looked like."
As for when Serkis was first eyed to play the King in Black, Marcel added, "We knew Andy Serkis would be Knull from Venom 2. He was our director on Venom 2; Tom and I were always talking on Venom 2 about what Venom 3 was going to be and we knew we wanted to introduce Knull in the way that we have. At the same time, looking at Andy Serkis every day as he's directing, [we're saying] 'Well, he's the greatest.'"
"Knull is CGI mo-cap and a lot of voice acting and there's only one person for that. He's the greatest. We always knew it would be Andy. We love Andy and it felt right," she continued. "We've brought most of our team along with us for all three of these movies so we really want to keep it as a family. Andy is a massive part of the Venom family."
Check out Lindberg's Knull designs for Venom: The Last Dance below.
"The most cinematic, monumental Venom movie to date, we said in our review of the movie last month, "The Last Dance leaves room for improvement but by upping the stakes and allowing Eddie and Venom to bond, it’s epic and heartfelt enough to leave us hoping this is far from Tom Hardy’s last whirl as the Lethal Protector."
In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel's greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie's last dance.
The movie stars Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Graham, and Rhys Ifans. Kelly Marcel directs from a screenplay she wrote, based on a story by Hardy and Marcel. The film is produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy and Hutch Parker.
Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters.