All he wanted to do is to get to the bottom of the truth and report a heck of a story to revive his journalistic career. Instead, journalist Eddie Brock finds himself embroiled in something bigger than himself. After accidentally bonding with an alien symbiote, Brock possesses superpowers and adopts a sinister alter ego who calls himself “Venom”. Unlike Jekyll and Hyde, where any one time only Jekyll or Hyde takes control of the body, Brock and Venom’s relationship is more of a hybrid; they both share the body and have to work together.
Tom Hardy has the honour of being both good and bad at the same time with Brock/Venom. He developed different accents and tone of voice when he speaks as Brock or Venom, and convinces in his physical struggle to keep the venomous symbiotic alien at bay.
Hardy impressed as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He showed strength, grit and ruthlessness in his roles and makes the ideal choice for Eddie Brock.
But which other actors could easily slide alongside Tom Hardy as Venom?
If there’s anyone who can make a role work, it’s Jake Gyllenhaal. Be it a forlorn lover in Brokeback Mountain (2005), a creepy conman in Nightcrawler (2014) or a boxing champion in Southpaw (2015), Gyllenhaal convinces and more. He’ll bring credibility as an eager journalist and weight as a malevolent terror. He can play both hero and anti-hero with ease, and either way, you’ll end up feeling for him.
There’s no one in Hollywood who can transform himself into another character better than James McAvoy. In Split (2016), he dazzles in 23 different characters with ease. McAvoy is uninhibited in his portrayal as a little boy, a repressed fashion designer and a pervert all trapped in the same body. And that uninhibitedness is exactly what makes him perfect for the role, especially when he struggles to keep Venom at bay, and when Venom unleashes his anger.
We’ve seen him acting like a petulant child with unbridled power in the new Star Wars series. We’ve also seen him shine as a reserved man with big talents trapped in a mundane existence in Paterson (2016). The two roles could not be poles apart, but Adam Driver portrayed them both brilliantly. We detested the man-child that he is as Kylo Ren, and rooted for the sweet-natured wannabe poet that he is in Paterson. could definitely deliver as Brock and Venom.
Armie Hammer has an undeniable charm and likeability, that even when he played a couple of vengeful twins in The Social Network (2010), you don’t hate him. For all the grace and charisma he exudes, Hammer has also shown his grittier side in movies like Mine (2016) and Free Fire (2016). As Brock/Venom, he’ll likely to play them as a less brash Brock and a quietly menacing Venom.
Brock Lesner
Have you seen what Eddie Brock in the comics look like? He looks exactly like wrestler Brock Lesner. Blond, with a thick neck and bulging muscles, you would have thought the comic Brock was drawn with Lesner in mind. Lesner may not have transitioned over to Hollywood like his peers Dwayne Johnson and John Cena, but it’s not hard for him to channel those rage that he exudes on the wrestling stage into Venom. And he would be doing major fan service!
