According to Venom: Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis, the Venom sequel almost had a different title — and no, it wasn’t Venom: Lethal Protector, as some people speculated.
“Not really, nothing to do with ‘Lethal Protector’ at this point,” Serkis told Collider. “We did think for a moment it might be called ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart,’ that was a going concern for a little while. But ‘Let There Be Carnage’ just seems to do it. There wasn’t a lot of fighting over the other titles we were thinking of. Because this was such a strong contender.”
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” is also the name of the famous 1980 song by rock band Joy Division, which itself was inspired by singer/songwriter Ian Curtis’ troubled relationship with his wife, Deborah Woodruff. In the context of the Venom sequel, it refers to the strained relationship between the eponymous symbiote and his human host Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy). Where Venom wants to use his super-powers to fight crime by snacking on the heads of bad guys, Eddie just wants to get his journalism career back on track after being fired from his cushy job in the first Venom film.
“In this movie, it’s like the seven-year itch cycle of a relationship. You got two characters that are literally stuck with each other. That odd couple relationship is what this movie was always going to be about, as a progression from the first one,” Serkis explained in a recent featurette. “It’s like living with an oversized toddler. They have had enough of each other. They can’t be together, can’t be apart. Eddie’s far too selfish. Venom just wants to be the hero.”
Eddie and Venom are forced to put their differences aside when the serial killer Cletus Kasady becomes the human host of the symbiote Carnage and breaks out of prison to wreak havoc on San Francisco. Woody Harrelson reprises his role as Cletus from Venom‘s mid-credits scene in the sequel and even gets his own relationship subplot when he joins forces with Carnage to reunite with his childhood love: the super-criminal Frances Barrison/Shriek (Naomie Harris).
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now playing in theaters.
Source: Collider
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