It appears that Venom is not as much of a badass as Vin Diesel. Sony has delayed Venom: Let There Be Carnage from June 25, 2021 to Sept. 17, 2021. The move comes as studios seem to be finally setting hard release dates for films as COVID-19 abates at last. Part of that movement was Universal moving F9 to late June, putting it into direct competition with Let There Be Carnage.
While the first Venom turned out to be a big hit when it released, earning $855 million globally, the campy film series wouldn’t stand a chance against the goliath that is the Fast and Furious franchise. Sony clearly saw the competition for the very similar audiences and decided it was best to move away, despite this being yet another delay for the Venom sequel, which had already been shuffled around due to the pandemic. The film will still release before Sony’s other Spider-Man villain film, Morbius, which has been delayed until Jan. 21, 2022.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage now has some breathing room to garner an audience in the mostly stagnant U.S. theatrical release market. The next big release would be Denis Villeneuve’s Dune on Oct. 1., a film that is a bit more highbrow than Let There Be Carnage and offers less competition while releasing further away.
Tom Hardy is returning for the second film, which will feature, as the title suggests, Carnage as the villain. Andy Serkis is directing the film with Kelly Marcel writing.
