Tom Hardy and Director Kelly Marcel KnewVenomWould End After 3 Movies 'from the Beginning' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock/Venom in Venom: The Last Dance.Photo:Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE ahead of the release ofVenom: The Last Dance, the actor, 47, and director-writer, 50, share that they knew how the movie series would end “from the beginning.”

“We knew it would be three,” Marcel says. “We knew it was a trilogy and we knew it would end like this from the beginning.”

Director Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy on the set of Venom: The Last Dance.Laura Radford

Laura Radford

Marcel served as the writer for all three movies, with Hardy co-writing the story on the latter two, and stepped into the directorial role for the first time with the third installment.

“Sony asked me to and I was like, ‘Oh, okay then,’ " she says of the new job title. “I have been on the first two movies and it felt like we knew that this was the third and final one, and knew that this one was going to be both a blast but emotional as well.”

Marcel continues to note Hardy’s contribution to the series, saying, “I feel like Tom and I, having spent the better part of seven years working on this, really wanted to bring this one home from inception to the finish line. It felt like the right time to step up and the right movie to do it with.”

Hardy vocalizes his support: “100 percent.”

elly Marcel and Tom Hardy at New York Comic Con 2024.Dave Allocca/StarPix

Dave Allocca/StarPix

“We’ve come a long way — it’s been and continues to be a lot of fun [on] this journey,” he wrote in a heartfeltInstagrampost. “There’s always hard turns to burn when we work but [it] doesn’t feel as hard when you love what you do and when you know you have great material.”

He continued to praise Marcel, calling her his “director, writing partner and dear friend.”

“Watching you taking the helm on this one fills me with pride, it is an honor,” Hardy added. “Trust, your gut, your instincts are always spot on.”

More recently, Hardy expressed that his son, Louis, 16, ishis biggest criticwhen it comes to his movies — andVenomis no different. He tells us that his teenage boy has been “giving feedback” on the trilogy “since he was eight, seven” years old.

Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock/Venom in Venom: The Last Dance.Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Courtesy of Sony Pictures

“Comic books exist differently for children, in many aspects. There is no filter on the child,” the actor says. “They’ll tell you what they feel [and] what they think because the characters are super important to them.'

Meanwhile, Hardy approaches his source material in different way. “I have a lot of, sort of, grown up baggage — trying to figure out what people might like or what I can say or what I can’t do, which gets in the way of the clarity of the heart,” he says.

He continues to note his son “will solve a problem much quicker than I would because he’s on a pure line,” and thus, he considers his perspective “super important.”

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With the movie series seemingly coming to an end, there is one storyline that fans craved that did not come to fruition and that is a crossover between Venom and Spider-Man. Despite the character’s absence in the movie series, Hardy and Marcel were quick on their feet to name which iteration of the superhero they would have like to seen make an appearance.

“Tom Holland,” Marcel says to Hardy’s satisfaction.

“He had, like, one web and it was made of string and there were no digital effects. Just a man in lycra… I’m duty bound to fight him too. Bring him out!”

Venom: The Last Danceis now playing in theaters.

source: people.com