Can you believe that Sony’s ‘Venom‘ movie (the Spiderman spin-off not actually featuring Spiderman or actually connected to the wall-crawler or taking place in the MCU) is set to premiere is just about a year, on October 5th, 2018? That seems pretty crazy, especially when you throw in the fact that we have yet to hear about principle photography beginning, never mind the time it is going to take for post-production and special-effects, which could be quite numerous if they really want to do justice to both Venom and Carnage, both of whom have powers that you just cannot do outside of computer graphics. So it is should be no surprise to anyone to be seeing a slew of casting information coming out of Sony in regards to the strange project. The latest is the report from Variety that Jenny Slate (‘Obvious Child,’ ‘Gifted’) is in talks to join the cast as a “scientist” character, adding yet another indie favorite to the film.
I know I have enjoyed Slate’s work ever since her days on ‘Parks and Rec,’ and I’m very curious to see how they are going to use her talents in ‘Venom. ‘Honestly, I have no idea what the tone of this movie is going to be, especially since it is being written by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, who most recently co-wrote the comedy ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,’ which seems to me to hint that ‘Venom’ might not be taken as seriously as I once thought, which would be odd considering it is also using the Carnage character, who is one of the biggest psychopaths/ serial killers in Marvel Comics history.
Jenny Slate joins a cast that already includes Tom Hardy in the lead role, Riz Ahmed in an unnamed role (it is rumored he read for Carnage but did not get it), and Michelle Williams, who does have a knack for picking projects that are winners, which should give us some hope for ‘Venom’ (unless this is the film where her luck finally turns).
What are your thoughts on casting Jenny Slate, and what do you think her scientist role might be? Could she be a love interest? A plucky side-kick? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
