We recently learned that the next Venom movie will be titled Venom: The Last Dance and, instead of opening on November 8, the symbiote will return to theaters slightly sooner on October 25.
It's always nice to get the opposite of a release date delay, but thanks to Variety, we now have news on why Sony Pictures made the change.
According to the trade, it's part of Hollywood's response to this year's U.S. election (which will see President Joe Biden and Donald Trump competing to return to the White House).
While the expectation is that some people will head to the movies as a distraction from what's likely to be a heated few weeks, studios will likely lay off all marketing efforts before and after the election. Why? Well, because they're likely to get lost in the shuffle of election ads and news coverage.
In fact, there are no major movies slated for release during the first week of November; after Venom: The Last Dance opens on October 25, there's nothing major until Gladiator 2 on November 22 and Wicked and Moana 2 on November 27.
"It’s going to be a quiet time in terms of releasing new material. You’ll be drowned out by noise and people won’t be paying attention," one studio executive tells the trade. "Anything opening the week of the election, good luck. It’ll be hard to break through."
This does make sense and could bode well for Venom: The Last Dance's chances of box office success; not only will competition be minimal, but the threequel might serve as a good distraction for everything else that will be going on.
"Actually, it was, again, I'm not gonna lie...I may have stepped on to a bigger set than even the Batman movie I was in," Venom: The Last Dance star Juno Temple previously said of the movie. "This set was insane. The creativity behind it...firstly, you walk into that and you're like, 'Wow, oh my God, this is really big.'"
"Tom is such a fan of Venom and the relationship between Eddie and Venom. He's so excited about telling this story and is so thrilled to have other people be part of [that]," the actress added. "He feels like a kid on the first day at school. That's pretty good energy to start a job with as it's intimidating, but when you have Venom himself as excited and nervous as you are because you all care, it feel like, 'Ah, I'm in the right place!'"
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange) has also landed a lead role in the threequel, though there's currently no word on who he's playing; the most popular theory online is that he's been cast as The Jury's General Orwell Taylor. Clark Backo (Letterkenny) has also boarded the threequel as an undisclosed character.
As well as returning as Eddie Brock, Tom Hardy also co-wrote Venom: The Last Dance's story with director Kelly Marcel before she later penned the screenplay. Produced by Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Hutch Parker, the movie is scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 25.