It’s time for Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and Venom to take their final bows, as the duo looks to close out their three-film franchise with Venom: The Last Dance. While trilogies aren’t uncommon anymore – really, the amount has only increased ever since the original Star Wars trilogy – what’s more uncommon is to find a trilogy that’s cohesive and has a clear string that runs through all of it before being tied perfectly together at the end with a little bow. Often, movies in a trilogy or a franchise will be led by different creative teams at one point or another, so that even if the actors might be the same in all three films, the writers that toy with the dialogue of the characters or the directors that try to capture their emotions may have different interpretations of what kind of overarching story to tell from one film to the next.
So, no, it’s not the insanely cool Venom horse, or the Venom fish, or even the Venom frog that draws in fans to the Venom franchise. Rather, it’s the creative cohesiveness between all three films, thanks to the partnership between Tom Hardy and writer-director-producer Kelly Marcel, that makes Venom: The Last Dance – and the entire Venom trilogy – shine.
Early Beginnings

Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy instantly hit it off when the two met at the Edinburgh Festival, connecting with their desire to create a space for artists and actors to continue working on their craft even while they were not actively involved in a project. Shortly afterwards, when one of Hardy’s feature films started to hit bumpy waters, Marcel came in and saved the day with some uncredited script rewrites. The film would become known as Bronson (2008) and would be Marcel’s first feature-length debut as a screenwriter. From their initial conversation back in Edinburgh, the pair would eventually create The Bad Dog Theater Company together in 2010, and their bond became so tightknit that Hardy even got a tattoo in tribute to Marcel. Over the years, Marcel would go on to write the scripts for both Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) before working with Hardy again on the set for the highly praised blockbuster hit, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). But their story was just getting started.
Collaboration with Symbiotes

Dreams of on-stage theater performances were only just the beginning for Marcel and Hardy’s collaborative relationship. While of course, Tom Hardy has been the face of Eddie Brock (and the voice of the symbiote Venom) since the franchise’s first film in 2018 – back when no one knew if Venom would even spark a franchise at all – Kelly Marcel has been there for just as long. Marcel has expertly woven together Eddie and Venom’s story from the very beginning and has stuck with writing and producing all three films of the franchise.
The shared vision between the two friends is evident in the final product of not just one film, but in all three films, as their collaboration on Venom has been ongoing for over seven years. So often in franchises, directors and writers swap out – whether it be for conflicting schedules or opposing visions – resulting in an unfortunate loss of creative cohesion and character inconsistencies between the films. But having Marcel as the writer for all three films is one of the greatest strengths that the Venom franchise can boast.
With the final installment, Marcel has not only penned the script, but she has also stepped into the spotlight with her directorial debut in Venom: The Last Dance. No one knows the characters better than Hardy and Marcel do, and no one more fitting to finish the story out both on the page and behind the camera than Marcel herself. Being friends for so long makes collaborating come naturally. The two understand each other in ways that only longtime friends can, with Marcel crafting scenes that she knows Hardy will enjoy playing out, while still challenging the actor, and Hardy being so acutely aware of the intentions behind Marcel’s words on the page. Hardy and Marcel even spent a week together holed up in a London hotel to knock out the story for the third film, working non-stop.
Friends for over fifteen years, The Last Dance marks Marcel’s first time directing Hardy, and during the filming process, Marcel had Hardy wear an earpiece while filming so that he not only could hear Venom’s pre-recorded dialogue in his ear, but also so that Marcel and Hardy could continue to improvise lines together if one of them came up with interesting dialogue in the moment. While critics may have doubted the power behind Venom at one point during the early stages, it’s no secret that the reason for the franchise’s success lies with the love that star Tom Hardy and director/writer/producer Kelly Marcel share for the characters and their stories, hoping to have successfully communicated this with the audience.
Shifting Marketing and Story Tactics

When the idea for a Venom film initially began to make waves, critics were not so quick to the concept. In Marvel Comics, the symbiote is frequently tied together with the character of Spider-Man. While Tobey Maguire already stared alongside Topher Grace in a battle between Spider-Man and Venom / Eddie Brock in Sony’s own Spider-Man 3 (2007), the idea of a Venom solo film gave pause to many. But audiences don’t always need a true hero in their movies. Sometimes, flawed anti-heroes like Venom and Deadpool are even more enjoyable to watch simply because they aren’t perfect and they in fact do make mistakes, just like everyone.
Although, what would a Venom film even be about without Spider-Man there? Well, Marcel and Hardy certainly gave us that answer: the relationship between Venom and Eddie Brock. Ever since the first film, audiences have raved over the relationship between the host and the symbiote, and Marcel – as well as the film’s marketing as a whole – has leaned right back into their relationship throughout the rest of the franchise. Marcel explains “the Venom trilogy is a classic rom-com, really. Eddie Brock and Venom meet in the first film. In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, they’ve got the seven-year itch and they break up. Now, as we conclude their story, they have finally learned to live with each other, they’ve finally reached symbiosis, but will they be able to stay together?” (via Coup de Main)
She also describes The Last Dance as a road trip film, with Eddie and Venom having to run away from enemies that are approaching them on all sides. Which to us, kind of sounds a lot like Thelma & Louise (1991). But will Venom and Eddie also hold hands as they run off a cliff together, or will they instead gallop with the Venom horse off into the sunset? The curtain is almost ready to fall as Venom and Eddie take their final bow together when Venom: The Last Dance it hits theaters on Friday, October 25.
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