Recently long term co-host of Collider's Movie Talk John Campea separated from the news outlet and has since been posting videos daily offering his views, insight, and perspective on a plethora of movie news topics, regardless of their size or importance. In a recent video, Campea quotes a reportedly new interview in Variety with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer, in which the director who is on board to direct Sony Pictures Entertainments Venom movie starring Tom Hardy is said to have given the following statement when asked about what narrative direction the movie will take...
"They become almost a third being, which is what Venom is. There's a famous quote: 'You're Eddie Brock. I'm the symbiote. Together we are Venom.'"
This quote shows great insight into the nuanced character of Venom and the character's history - While it is widely known that after Peter Parker the symbiote bonded with Eddie Brock most general audiences are unfamiliar with the character's history afterward. The symbiote briefly bonded with Brock's ex-wife Ann Weying (pictured below), who according to The Hashtag Show will also be appearing in the forthcoming movie, although she later committed suicide.
Eventually, the symbiote and Brock parted ways before it bonded with Mac Gargan, better known as the Spider-Man villain Scorpion, but after Norman Osborn was able to subdue the symbiote it was forcefully removed from Gargan and was used by long-term Spider-Man character Flash Thompson as a battle suit known as Agent Venom. Interestingly though most assume Peter-Parker was the symbiotes first host, in 2015 it was revealed that the first host was in actuality Deadpool and that it is likely the Merc with a Mouth's broken psyche that was responsible for the symbiotes subsequent aggression.
The symbiotes ability to form a new identity based on the combined personalities of itself and its host, while inheriting traits from its previous and present host is what makes the character so interesting and popular. Unlike many superheroes and villains, the character of Venom can evolve, adapt and renew itself. While bonded with most hosts the character has been seen as either a villain or an anti-hero, its tenure as Agent Venom has seen the character depicted as a hero, although a potentially volatile one, similar in many ways to the Hulk. As such, Fleischer's comments should inspire faith among fans that not only does the director understand the character, but should the movie be a success that we may very well see a series of movies that will explore the symbiotes unique character traits with other hosts.
