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Tom Hardy to star as Venom in Spider-Man spin-off movie

Some fans are disappointed that the film won't cross over with the already established Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper

The "Venom" is spreading. On Friday, Sony Pictures confirmed that Tom Hardy (Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises," "Taboo") will play Eddie Brock/Venom in the 2018 film about the fan favorite supervillain with the terrible teeth.

Fans on Twitter seemed pretty psyched about the casting.

Others were disappointed -- not by Hardy's casting, but because Sony's "Venom" is not a joint production with Marvel Studios, and Tom Holland, who stars in the upcoming "Spider-Man: Homecoming," won't appear in it.

Still, some were just happy Topher Grace wouldn't be back in the role he played in 2007's "Spider-Man 3."

Mark your calendars for Oct. 5, 2018, to see Hardy's alien symbiote take over theaters.