Venom, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse web up fans at Comic-Con – CNET

Spider-Man will always swing into our hearts, but it was the darker character of Venom who impressed audiences attending San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H panel on Friday night.

The live action Venom movie follows Tom Hardy (who was at the Comic-Con panel) as Eddie Brock — a journalist who bonds and becomes the host of Venom, an alien known as a symbiote. Michelle Williams plays Anne Weying, a district attorney and Eddie’s girlfriend, while Riz Ahmed plays Carlton Drake — the leader of the Life Foundation that’s working on the symbiote. 

The Hall H panel at Comic-Con showed off new footage from Venom, which director Ruben Fleischer reminded the audience that it still had some visual effects to complete before a final version is ready.

The new footage also revealed that Venom will face off against another symbiote named Riot who can transfer to other people. The director also suggested more villains could be in the movie, “We are planning a big world with this Venom story.”

But in the meantime, Hardy is having fun playing the unusual lead originally created in Marvel comics

“My son is a massive Venom fan, and he was a strong influence on my why I should play Venom specifically,” Hardy told the audience attending Sony’s Hall H panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted to do something my son could watch. So I did something where I bite people’s heads off.”

Venom also stars Al-Jaleel Knox, Christian Convery, DJames Jones, Donald K. Overstreet, Gail Gamble, Grace Wan, Jared Bankens, Jenny Slate, Kayko Thompson, Mac Brandt, Marcella Bragio, Michelle Lee, Reid Scott, Sailor Larocque, Sam Medina, Scott Haze, Sope Aluko, Van Marten, and Woody Harrelson.

Sadly, there are still no plans to have Venom meet Tom Holland’s Spider-Man the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Venom will be released Oct. 4 in Australia and Oct. 5 in the US and UK.

Sony’s Comic-Con panel also featured more news on the upcoming animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — which keeps adding more Spider-people.

The panel revealed that comedian John Mulaney will voice Spider-Ham, joining Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales, Jake Johnson’s Peter Parker, Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacey and Nicholas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir… yes THAT Nic Cage. Director Phil Lord also confirmed that the movie takes place in an alternate dimension to the Spider-Man stories we normally see, which explains all the different spider characters that keep appearing.

The all-star voice cast also includes Brian Tyree Henry, John Krasinski, Lauren Vélez, Liev Schreiber, Lily Tomlin, Mahershala Ali, Melanie Haynes, Muneeb Rehman and Nick Jaine.

Peter Parker’s Spider-Man (l.) will mentor the teen Miles Morales (r.) in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but they won’t be alone.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

“It’s Peter Parker at 40. It’s Peter Parker with a bad back. It’s Peter Parker not sure he still wants to be Spider-Man,” Johnson said about his version of Spider-Man in the panel. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse arrives in theaters on Dec. 14.

Get a more extensive primer on Spider-Man in our guide Into the Spider-Verse — who are all these Spider-people? 

Be sure to follow along with our Comic-Con 2018 coverage for the latest gaming, TV and movie news. 

Who will rule Comic-Con 2018?: Wonder Woman, Venom and Doctor Who aim to fill an Avengers-sized hole.

Comic-Con 2018: Stay up-to-date on everything we see in San Diego at the ultimate geek conference.

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