Venom 3 is taking a huge step forward with a key promotion.
Deadline reports that Sony Pictures has decided on Kelly Marcel to follow Andy Serkis as director after previously writing Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Marcel has traditionally been a writer, having written Fifty Shades of Grey and Disney's Saving Mr. Banks, before expanding on story ideas with Tom Hardy for both Venom films.
Related: Spider-Man: No Way Home writer reveals Venom's alternate role
Like the previous two Venom movies, Marcel is set to collaborate with Hardy on the story for Venom 3 and then turn it into the script, in addition to directing. Sony has not commented on Marcel's promotion.
When Venom: Let There Be Carnage came out last year, Hardy spoke about how he'd been thinking ahead to connect the movie to future sequels.
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"These things [usually] come in threes," he told Digital Spy. "If there's going to be a new one – and they depend heavily on the success of each individual one, so you can't count on them ever happening again – every one has got to be as if it was the last one.
Related: Venom 2 led to Top Gun: Maverick success, claim Sony bosses
"But I think it's really important, if you go into something, thinking that one, two and three are the same... the same story, the same film. So that you don't surprise yourself by being caught out by suddenly having to do a third from nowhere."
It looks like work on the third film actually started earlier this year because Hardy shared a sneak preview of the script on social media back in June.
Hardy most recently played Venom for a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where he left a bit of the Symbiote in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to potentially taint Tom Holland at some point.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
