Tom Hardy, Andy Serkis sink their teeth into 'Venom' sequel

Not everything worked in the first “Venom” film, a darker, slimier spinoff adjacent to Sony Pictures’ “Spider-verse” Marvel world

NEW YORK -- If there was one broadly agreed takeaway from 2018’s “Venom,” it was that when you let Tom Hardy run loose, good things happen.

Not everything worked in the film, a darker, slimier spinoff adjacent to Sony Pictures’ “Spider-verse” Marvel world. But “Venom,” led by Hardy's Jekyll and Hyde act, managed to break free of some of the prescribed rhythms of superhero movies.

In its most talked-about scene, journalist Eddie Brock (Hardy), is overcome by the alien symbiote living inside him: Venom, a slimy, sinister-looking alien hulk also voiced by Hardy. Venom has a ravenous appetite, so in a scene set at a seafood restaurant, Hardy improvised that Brock would, under Venom's control, leap into a lobster tank. What was supposed to be background set dressing was rebuilt to support Hardy, and thus spawned the defining moment for a weird and warped comic-book franchise.

“That tone was what everyone universally agreed was the epicenter of this world,” says Andy Serkis, director of the sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” “That is precisely the touchstone moment for where we started off with this.”