Venom: The Last Dance

Venom: The Last Dance is a 2024 American superhero film written and directed by Kelly Marcel, which features the Marvel Comics character Venom. The final installment of the Venom trilogy following Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), it is the fifth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom, alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Alanna Ubach, and Andy Serkis.

Hardy revealed in August 2019 that he was signed on to appear in a third and final Venom film and Sony Pictures began development by December 2021 after the second film was released. Marcel and Hardy were writing the script by June 2022, and Marcel was set to make her directorial debut with the film that October. New cast members, including Ejiofor and Temple, joined in mid-2023, and filming began in Spain at the end of June 2023. Production was halted the next month due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and resumed that November after the strike ended. The film was completed by the end of February 2024 and its title was revealed a month later.

Venom: The Last Dance premiered at the Regal Times Square Theater in New York City on October 21, 2024, and was released in the United States on October 25. Like its predecessor, the film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $182 million worldwide.

Storyline:

In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo is forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.

Plot:

Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote are drunk in a bar in Mexico,[a] still on the run after their recent battle with Carnage.[b] The murder of Patrick Mulligan makes international headlines with Eddie being named the prime suspect, forcing him to set out to New York City and attempt to clear his name.

Cast:

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom: An investigative journalist who hosts Venom, an alien symbiote that imbues him with super-human abilities.[5]
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Rex Strickland: An Imperium commander tracking Eddie and trying to capture Venom.[6][7][8]
Juno Temple as Dr. Teddy Payne: A scientist for Imperium, haunted by the death of her brother from a lightning strike that left her arm scarred, who becomes the host of a purple-colored, tendril-haired symbiote.[8]
Rhys Ifans as Martin Moon: A hippie and an alien enthusiast.[9]
Stephen Graham as Patrick Mulligan: A former police detective who was infected with a symbiote after encountering Carnage, but is left for dead by it before he is captured by Imperium. Graham also voices an unnamed green symbiote Mulligan bonds with.[7]

Filming:

Principal photography began on June 26, 2023, at Los Mateos in Cartagena, Spain, as well as at the Calblanque Regional Park,[35][36] under the working title Orwell.[37] Fabian Wagner serves as the cinematographer after previously serving as an additional cinematographer on Let There Be Carnage.[30] The start of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike in mid-July 2023 resulted in filming being halted.[38] Later that month, the film was set to release on July 12, 2024.[39] When the actors’ strike ended in early November 2023, Sony delayed the film to release on November 8, 2024, filling the November 2024 date that the studio had previously reserved for an untitled Marvel film. Production was preparing to resume at that time.[40] Filming resumed on November 16.[41] In February 2024, Clark Backo joined the cast in an undisclosed role,[11] and Temple said at the end of the month that filming was nearly completed.[42]