The last dance knows fans want more venom and Eddie
Ever since the symbiote made its first appearance, fans have been in a state of ecstatic horror as they witnessed the symbiotic monster attacking villains with its long, strange tongue and tar-like massive body. This disturbed attraction quickly turned into a Tumblr craze between Venom and his special passenger, Eddie Brock, as the two continued their budding friendly relationship in the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, leading up to the newly released curtain call, Venom: The Last Dance. It’s also a film that sees its old name (Eddie’s former fiancée, Anne) completely ousted from the love triangle. Now, writer and director Kelly Marcel has come forward to explain why the film reserved itself to canonize Eddie and Venom as the true and only pairing of the film trilogy.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Marcel revealed why Anne (portrayed by the five-time Oscar-nominated Michelle Williams) was missing from the film, Venom: The Last Dance, because she wanted to give fans what they wanted: more of Tom Hardy’s Eddie and Venom.
“We listen to the fans. After every film, we go back and look at what people liked and what they didn’t like. It was very clear that people were very attached to the relationship between Venom and Eddie,” Marcel told THR. “That’s what they loved. The axis on which these films turn is the relationship between Venom and Eddie, and it has always revolved around them.”
As THR notes, the end of 2018’s Venom saw the late Stan Lee cameo as some kind of wise wingman, imparting sage wisdom to Eddie so he wouldn’t let go of his relationship with Anne. Clearly, Lee didn’t know what he was barking about because from that moonlit kiss that raised the eyebrow between Eddie and Anne covered in symbiotic Venom stuff, Anne has morphed from a romantic interest to a supportive third wheel during the oddball couple phase in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Marcel continued to describe the reason for Eddie and Venom’s escape from the army and the symbiotic creator Knull due to their unholy union as the ultimate story of the couple.
“Yes, we really wanted to isolate them. We wanted to take them out of their comfort zone,” Marcel said. “We wanted to take them away from everything they know and everyone they love, so they only have each other to rely on now. We knew we wanted them to come to terms with each other and decide that they are each other’s deadly protector, and that they would go on this wild journey together.”
She added, “And of course, it quickly becomes very dangerous for them because just their existence together means the world is in danger. So they realize that the thing they chose is actually their downfall, and thus all the characters from previous films—except for Ms. Chen played by Peggy Lu—do not belong in this wild journey story.”
It’s not every day that a computer-generated space creature outshines an Oscar-nominated actor, but love works in mysterious ways.
Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters.
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