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With the first trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage now out, the old question of “where’s Spider-Man” inevitably will crop up. Venom, a.k.a. Eddie Brock, a.k.a. a very bemused and amusing Tom Hardy in the new trailer, of course got his start in the pages of the Spider-Man comics. And indeed, Peter Parker originally wore the Venom suit/symbiote before rejecting it, at which point it bonded with Brock. But you know this already because you’ve seen Spider-Man 3!

Still, as we know from the first Venom film from 2018, the Tom Hardy version of the character has so far existed without any wallcrawler needed. And yet, the trailer for Venom 2 does give us a couple of Spidey hints, as did the trailer last year for another Sony/Marvel film that’s currently in the works, the Jared Leto-starring Morbius.

All that said, Let There Be Carnage director Andy Serkis tells IGN that his film is meant to exist apart from Spider-Man and his universe. For now, anyway.

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“Obviously, there are links between Venom and Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe and the Spider-Man story,” says Serkis. “We’re treating this very much as it’s his own world. The Venom story is his own world. There are nods and little moments [like the shot of the newspaper the Daily Bugle], of course, but on the whole he’s unaware. They are unaware, at this point, of other characters like Spider-Man. So, that’s the way we’ve chosen to play this particular episode of the movie, but, well, we’ll wait and see. We’ll see what little things you can pick out of it.”

Even if there is no hard connection between the two worlds, there have been hints. Let’s dig in a little more on how the Venom 2 and Morbius trailers have tied back to Spider-Man so far.

The Daily Bugle

Spidey’s very own hometown newspaper — and place of employment — the Daily Bugle is glimpsed in the Let There Be Carnage trailer (and it appears this version of the Bugle has the same title treatment and stylings as the version from the Sam Raimi Spidey movies). This is perhaps the closest the Venom movies have gotten yet to acknowledging the existence of Peter Parker’s world, though of course just because there’s a Daily Bugle in the Sony/Marvel-verse, it doesn’t mean that there’s a Spider-Man in the Sony/Marvel-verse.

Indeed, Eddie Brock is a reporter, so he may very well be working for the Bugle in Venom: Let There Be Carnage (no, you don’t have to live in the same city as the outlet you work for!). Sure, this could just be a fun Easter egg for comics fans, but it could also be seen as a small step into a larger, MCU-ish world (where, don’t forget, the Bugle also exists — though so far we’ve only seen it as a sort of talk show/hype train for J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home).

You can also spot what might just be a reference to the Avengers in the paper. Within the pages of J. Jonah’s beloved rag, it looks like a headline reads something like “Avengers Lose to Nightmare.” Nightmare, of course, is a Marvel villain (who has been rumored as a possible player in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which come to think of it is also being directed by Sam Raimi).

Smash That Spider!

This is a small moment in the trailer — literally, in that a spider can be spotted before its untimely demise. Was it radioactive?! We’ll never know, for the poor thing is taken before its time when it’s squished by someone (apparently Carnage himself).

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This is almost certainly nothing more than a wink to the spider-ness of the Sony/Marvel universe, but it’s another acknowledgment for fans that, yes, the studio is aware that you want your Spider-Man and your Venom to meet up someday.

(Or maybe that was the radioactive/genetically-altered arachnid that would’ve given the Venom reality’s version of Peter Parker his powers! And now puny Parker will never get bitten and just keep getting beaten up in high school instead…)

Meanwhile, in the Morbius-verse

We don’t know if Morbius, which stars Jared Leto and will be released on January 28, 2022, is part of the Venom world of Sony/Marvel movies or not. But why wouldn’t the studio at least leave the door open to the two characters sharing the same universe? After all, Morbius — a.k.a. the Living Vampire in some circles — also debuted in the pages of Spider-Man way back when. And like Venom, he also walks the line between hero and anti-hero, what with the whole vampire thing.

The Morbius movie was delayed from its original July 2020 release along with much of the rest of Hollywood’s offerings because of the pandemic, but we actually got a trailer for it way back in January of 2020. And in that trailer, the image of Spider-Man could actually be glimpsed very briefly when Michael Morbius (Leto) walks down a New York City street and passes artwork of Spidey on a wall that, get this, has “murderer” graffitied across it.

The murderer accusation would seem to mean that Morbius takes place after Spider-Man: Far From Home, which ended with Peter Parker being set-up by Mysterio to appear to be a killer. That’s also where the wallcrawler’s identity was outed by a taped message form Mysterio… which aired on J. Jonah Jameson’s Daily Bugle video blog/show. So all in all, this feels like a pretty strong tie to the current Spider-Man movies. Unless it’s just another fun Easter egg. And speaking of Morbius…

Michael Keaton’s Vulture, Flying Across the Multiverse?

At the very end of the Morbius trailer from last year we saw Michael Keaton, who of course played Adrian Toomes/the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. It hasn’t been confirmed by the studio that Keaton is playing the Vulture in Morbius, but it would seem to be too cute by half to cast him in any other role in a Spider-Man-adjacent movie.

You can see police lights behind him in the Morbius trailer, and it seems like Keaton is wearing the same white uniform top he had on in prison at the end of Homecoming. What does this all mean? Is Morbius teaming up with the Vulture? Could this be the start of a Sony/Marvel take on the Sinister Six? Hard to say right now.

But if Morbius is in fact meeting the Vulture, then why wouldn’t Venom meet up with these two as well at some point? Probably not in Let There Be Carnage, but maybe eventually? And after that, why wouldn’t they all meet up with Spider-Man?

What do you think is going on with the Sony/Marvel-verse of characters? How could it connect to the MCU? Let’s discuss in the comments!

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1080p resolution remains the most popular in Steam’s hardware survey, but higher resolutions have steadily grown to 15 percent of the pie. Large monitors are frequently out of stock as demand from gamers continues to outpace supply.

Asus’ ROG Swift PG329Q represents the cutting edge of 32-inch gaming monitors. It touts 1440p resolution, a refresh rate that can overclock to 175Hz, Nvidia G-Sync support, and HDR 600 certification, all for $699. That’s not cheap, yet finding the PG329Q in stock at MSRP is a struggle.

Does this 32-inch monitor deserve to be at the top of your list?

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Asus ROG Swift PG329Q – Design

The Asus ROG Swift PG329Q is part of the Republic of Gamers sub-brand and unsurprisingly embraces its design language. That means a large, bold stand with a dramatic twist and asymmetric legs. The monitor has bright RGB backlighting that supports Asus’ Aura Sync for synchronization with other compatible peripherals.

Asus’ ROG monitors tend to remind me of Michael Bay’s Transformer movies, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. They seem desperate to make a dramatic statement with busy design and odd angles that never look quite right. I prefer the sleek Space Odyssey vibes of Alienware’s monitors, like the AW2721D.

Functionally, however, there’s not much to complain about. The monitor’s divisive design is easy to ignore because the large screen, which is surrounded by thin bezels, hides the stand. Adjustment options include 100 millimeters of height, 25 degrees of swivel and 25 degrees of tilt. There’s no option to pivot the display into a vertical orientation because the stand isn’t tall enough to allow it.

Asus ROG Swift PG329Q – Features

Asus tends to go overboard with features, and the ROG Swift PG329Q is no exception. It has a long list of gaming-focused options including a built-in crosshair and time, an FPS counter, a sniper mode (which zooms a small portion of the display), gobs of genre-specific image quality presets, a black equalizer (called Shadow Boost), and Aura RGB backlighting.

I think competitive shooter fans will be happy with what’s offered. The combination of a crosshair, zoom, timer, and black equalizer makes for a sweet setup if you want to maximize visibility and situational awareness.

Connectivity is excellent. The monitor packs two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.2, a USB 3.0 upstream that powers two USB 3.0 downstream ports for connecting peripherals, and 3.5mm audio jack. While some gamers will be disappointed by the lack of HDMI 2.1, especially given this monitor’s size, it’s only really necessary if you plan on hooking up a PS5 or Xbox Series X.

The PG329Q provides a handful of detailed image quality settings. These include three specific gamma presets, three vague color temperature presets, and the option to tweak RGB color and overall color saturation. This is fine for a gaming monitor but not ideal for content creators craving a monitor for both gaming and work.

A joystick is used to control the monitor’s on-screen menu. It’s paired with four physical buttons that are hidden along the right flank. The buttons aren’t labeled aside from the on-screen menu, but they’re large, so I rarely hit the wrong one. Asus’ menus are easy to navigate, though the sheer number of options is sure to overwhelm some gamers. The default settings are great for most games, so owners don’t need to spend much time in the menus.

There is one feature completely absent: built-in speakers. This is surprising given the PG329Q’s size and price. Plan to use external computer speakers or a gaming headset.

Asus ROG Swift PG329Q – Performance

The Asus ROG Swift PG329Q packs surprisingly excellent color performance. It’s a wide color gamut display that, in my testing, can display 100% of the sRGB and AdobeRGB gamuts, as well as 95% of DCI-P3. Its color accuracy can rival the very best professional monitors, and it even supports true 10-bit color. The PG329Q notably defeats the Alienware AW2721D, which also advertises a wide color gamut, and trades blows with the BenQ EX2780Q.

It’s interesting, refreshing, and a bit confusing to see this level of color performance from the PG329Q. On the plus side, the monitor can serve content creators who want accurate color despite its slim image quality customization. However, I’m not sure everyone will be happy with 2,560 x 1440 resolution on a 32-inch display.

The monitor’s pixel density works out to about 91 pixels per inch, which is identical to a 24-inch 1080p monitor. This is fine for day-to-day productivity and web browsing. Distracting aliasing is noticeable on fonts and interface elements, but I didn’t find it uncomfortable or annoying. It’s less impressive when editing photos and images, as the lack of sharpness and resolution means you’ll have to zoom in more frequently to see fine detail in large images.

Many streaming platforms, especially those focused on movies and television, don’t stream at native 1440p. This underscores the lack of alignment between the monitor’s color accuracy and its resolution. Blockbuster movies benefit from realistic color but can also look soft compared to a smaller 1080p display or modern 4K TV.

Asus ROG Swift PG329Q – Gaming Performance

Asus’ ROG Swift PG329Q looks good straight out of the box. It delivers a vibrant image that relies heavily on the strength of its wide color gamut and precise color accuracy. You’ll enjoy the monitor in games that lean heavily on bold color and flashy presentation, like Final Fantasy XIV or Overwatch.

The monitor’s 2,560 x 1,440 resolution is a good fit for PC gaming. It of course lacks the ultra-sharp look for a 4K gaming monitor, but you may find the difference hard to appreciate in modern titles, especially if the monitor is placed more than three feet away from you or the game has a quality anti-aliasing feature.

On the downside, 1440p isn’t great for console gaming. The PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch lack native 1440p support, so games and menus will look softer than you’d expect.

Dark scene performance is a problem. IPS monitors always struggle in this area, but the PG329Q looks especially hazy and bright when displaying scenes that should look dark and foreboding. This hurts games that lean towards a realistic look. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I noticed that forest scenes lacked a sense of depth because shadows were foggy instead of deep. Objective tests returned a contrast ratio of 590:1, which is very low for a modern gaming monitor.

The PG329Q is VESA DisplayHDR 600 certified, and I was pleased by the monitor’s overall HDR performance. Image quality is sharp and colorful with the feature turned on in Windows. I recorded a maximum sustained luminance of 529 cdm/2, which is incredibly bright for a display. You’ll likely need to turn down HDR brightness in Windows for comfortable use.

Brightness becomes key to the PG329Q’s overall presentation. Because of its poor black levels, the PG329Q relies on brightness to provide a sense of contrast and depth. It looks great in brilliant outdoor scenes, like those found in many open-world games, but falls short after dusk or in tight, dimly lit corridors.

Local backlight dimming is provided by 16 edge-lit zones. My review monitor, like most modern edge-lit monitors, had several hazy spots that were obvious with local dimming off. Local dimming improved on them by turning off the backlight entirely in areas where it didn’t need to be on.

The ROG Swift PG329Q left me with mixed feelings. It looks outstanding in bright and colorful games, especially those that support HDR, but games that aim for a gritty look are muddled and muted.

Asus ROG Swift PG329Q – Motion Performance

Refresh rate is the Asus ROG Swift PG329Q’s headline feature. It defaults to 144Hz out of the box and can overclock up to 175Hz with the flick of a few settings. This is excellent for a 32-inch display.

Gameplay looked smooth at 144Hz, as expected. Ramping the monitor’s overclocking feature up to 175Hz didn’t make gameplay more fluid but also didn’t introduce distracting halos or trails behind moving objects.

Asus offers six levels of Variable OverDrive that decrease response times. It’s set to “Level 3” by default, and I’d recommend sticking to that, as I noticed bright streaks behind some moving objects at higher settings. I saw no improvement with less aggressive settings.

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The monitor offers Asus’ ELMB Sync, a backlight strobing feature that is compatible with G-Sync. It reduces motion blur by pulsing the display on and off at a frequency higher than your eye can see.

The clarity of ELMB Sync will help you track fast-moving objects and fine details, like the motion of an enemy in a distant window. ELMB Sync shows a distracting “double image” effect that is common to all backlight strobing features. With that said, the “double image” effect is more subdued than on competing monitors, and you may prefer playing with ELMB Sync on.

Backlight strobing features like ELMB Sync reduce perceived brightness, which can be a problem in bright rooms. This isn’t an issue with the PG329Q. ELMB Sync darkens the display, but it remains bright enough to use even in a sunlit room.

The PG329Q is officially certified for G-Sync. FreeSync support isn’t advertised, and I wasn’t able to test the monitor with an AMD video card. However, other reviewers and owners have noted the PG329Q works with AMD FreeSync.

The monitor’s variable refresh range is from 50Hz to 175Hz. This is better on the low end than competing 32-inch monitors from LG and Samsung. You’ll appreciate this if you own an older graphics card that can struggle to deliver high framerates in demanding games.

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Purchasing Guide

The Asus ROG Swift PG329Q should retail for $699 at Amazon and Newegg.

Seth Rogen has said he doesn’t plan on working with James Franco again following accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior.

According to Variety, Rogen made the comments during a recent interview with The Sunday Times, in which he addressed the allegations made against Franco in 2014 and again in 2018. In particular, he spoke about how the accusations of sexual misconduct against his former collaborator had affected their professional relationship, having previously worked together on multiple projects.

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Rogen said in 2018 he would continue working with Franco, but that stance appears to have changed now that some time has passed by. “What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment,” he said. “I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that.”

“I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now,” he added, noting that the end of his professional relationship with Franco was “not a coincidence” as “many things” had changed in regards to their personal dynamic with one another.

Franco dealt with allegations of inappropriate behavior in 2014 when he was accused of propositioning a 17-year-old girl on Instagram. Franco, then 35, addressed the situation on Live! With Kelly and Michael, claiming it was a case of “bad judgment.” He faced further accusations of sexual misconduct in 2018 when five women publicly accused him of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior.

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Variety reports that the allegations — which Franco repeatedly denied — eventually “turned into a lawsuit, which was settled in February.” Franco has appeared in a few roles since the accusations were made against him, but none with Rogen. The duo previously worked together on Pineapple Express, The Green Hornet, The Interview, and many more.

Rogen and Franco last starred together in 2017’s The Disaster Artist, which was directed by Franco. The movie’s screenplay was adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber from a 2013 book of the same name written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. IGN called the story “a hilarious and heart-wrenching ode to outsider art” that “would be impossible to believe if it weren’t apparently true.”

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

The key art for the newly announced The Division: Heartland game mentioned that the free-to-play shooter is “a Ubisoft Original” game. That’s the first time we’ve seen that branding from the French publisher, and it’s something we’ll see a lot more of going forward.

A spokesperson for the company told Eurogamer that, moving forward, the “Ubisoft Original” branding will be attached to “all of Ubisoft’s games created in-house by our talented developers.”

Ubisoft does not currently publish third-party games, so seemingly the “Ubisoft Original” branding will be attached to every game going forward. Whether or not this new designation is a signal that Ubisoft might start publishing other studios’ games remains to be seen.

The branding bears a resemblance to the line of “EA Originals” from Electronic Arts. These are games from independent studios that EA publishes, however, including It Takes Two, Unravel, and the upcoming Knockout City.

In adopting the new branding, Ubisoft is seemingly taking a page out of Netflix’s book. The streaming giant labels its original content as “Netflix Originals.”

As for Heartland, it’s a new free-to-play game set in The Division’s universe. It’s being developed by Ubisoft Red Storm, the North Carolina-based studio that has worked on games in the Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Far Cry, and Rocksmith franchises.

Very little is known about Heartland in the way of specifics. The original Division was set in New York and the sequel went to Washington D.C. Given its name, Heartland sounds like it could be set more in the middle of the US. Heading outside of a major city could shake things up in an interesting way for the series, but we’ll have to see how it plays out.

Heartland is just one of Ubisoft’s upcoming extensions of The Division series. The publisher is also planning the franchise’s first mobile game, while a new novel is coming as well. On top of those projects, Ubisoft is planning more content for The Division 2 in 2021, while it’s also making a Division movie starring Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal for Netflix.

Ubisoft might have more details to share on its future direction as part of its upcoming earnings report, which is scheduled for Monday, May 10. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

Woody Harrelson’s Venom character Cletus Kasady promised plenty of carnage in the sequel, and it looks like the new movie will deliver. The first trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage features our first look at the iconic Spider-Man villain.

The trailer makes it clear Carnage can use his symbiote in ways Venom can’t, but what exactly are his powers? Let’s take a look at how Carnage’s powers are portrayed in the comics and why the movie is veering in its own direction, according to director Andy Serkis.

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How Venom 2 Changes Carnage

In terms of his look, Harrelson’s Carnage is very close to the source material. However, his powers seem to work a little differently in this universe. In speaking with IGN, director Andy Serkis suggests the movie is downplaying the idea of Carnage necessarily being stronger than Venom. In this dynamic, Venom is the physical powerhouse while Carnage is the more agile, unpredictable fighter.

“Venom is… pretty straightforward in a way,” Serkis says. “He’s like a quarterback. He’s very grounded, very physically sort of heavy, and like a quarterback where brute force is very much his thing, but whereas Carnage is in the same way that Cletus is manipulative psychologically and physically, he can take your energy and completely shift it for you. So we wanted the whole movement style to be very idiosyncratic and off-kilter and strange, and you just can’t pin him down. It would be like trying to have a fight with an octopus basically.”

Serkis also revealed Carnage will have at least one completely new power in the movie. He’ll be able to transform into mist, presumably allowing him to travel through tight spaces and evade detection like a vampire. That, coupled with the traditional shape-shifting tendril powers, should make Carnage a very deadly foe indeed.

“He can turn to mist. He can turn to all manner of tendrils. He can take different forms. He can weaponize, he can do all of these different things,” Serkis says. “With all symbiotes, they reflect the person who is their host. So the darkness of Carnage, the playfulness, the wit, the strangeness because Cletus… has a real intelligence and in the way that he uses violence as a bizarre, twisted, crazy wit about what he does and he has a real sense of humor, and we wanted to reflect that in the symbiote that is linked to him.”

Based on Serkis’ comments, the movies seem to be leaning more into the idea that the symbiote’s powers reflect its host, rather than it growing progressively stronger with each host. That makes sense given that it never bonded with Spider-Man in this universe (as far as we know). We’ll have to see just how much the sequel delves into the symbiote’s origins and true nature.

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Carnage’s Symbiote Powers

The Venom symbiote only grows more dangerous and powerful with time. In the comics, the symbiote grows physically stronger each time it finds a new host. That’s why Venom is physically stronger than Spider-Man, even though Eddie Brock doesn’t have innate superhuman powers like Peter Parker does. The symbiote learned from its time bonded with Peter, and it replicates many of his genetic gifts once it bonds with Eddie. That’s also why Venom is immune to Peter’s Spider-Sense.

As you might expect, that makes Carnage stronger than both Spider-Man and Venom. The portion of the Venom symbiote that split off and bonds with Cletus brings all its experience and physical development along for the ride. Carnage has even greater strength than Venom, and he too is immune to Spider-Sense.

However, Cletus’ deranged mind also unlocks a whole new host of abilities. While Peter and Eddie can use the symbiote to change their appearance or mimic ordinary clothing, Cletus takes the symbiote’s shape-shifting powers to a new level. He can transform his limbs into various blade shapes and even form new limbs and tendrils. To make a Terminator comparison, he’s like the T-1000 to Venom’s T-800.

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Even Carnage’s appearance reflects this instability. His red and black “skin” is constantly morphing and spouting off tendrils. He’s chaos in motion, and that aspect of him certainly looks to still be the case in Venom 2.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will hit theaters on September 24 in the US, September 15 in the UK and September 16 in Australia.

It sounds as though PS5 supplies will continue to be limited into 2022.

It was never going to be easy launching a new console in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, and Bloomberg now reports that Sony has spoken to a “group of analysts” about the supply constraint issues affecting PlayStation 5 supplies, reportedly warning that shortages will continue into 2022.

“I don’t think demand is calming down this year and even if we secure a lot more devices and produce many more units of the PlayStation 5 next year, our supply wouldn’t be able to catch up with demand,” Hiroki Totoki reportedly told the analysts.

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Global shortages of semiconductors, which are used in almost all computing devices, has made it increasingly difficult for the continuing demand for PS5 consoles to be met. Semiconductors are a crucial part of the PS5 architecture, and the shortages have let to delays in the console’s production cycle.

Ever since the PS5 launched in November 2020 it has been difficult for both retail stores, and consumers, to get their hands on one. Both the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the trade war started by the Trump administration against China have affected the ability for electronics manufacturers to get hold of these parts. It was previously reported that AMD (which produces chips for PS5) expected shortages to to continue into 2021, but that looks set to be extended into 2022 as well.

Sony has previously been vocal in suggesting it wants to surpass the second-year sales of the PS4, which totalled 14.8 million units – however issues with the particular chips needed might get in the way of achieving that target. Ideally, Sony would want to keep up with, or even exceed the early sales of the Playstation 4, but that is looking increasingly challenging at this point.

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In April, Playstation CEO Jim Ryan said that the company were looking to increase PS5 supply, and that he was in discussions with chip supplier AMD, but it’s clear from this latest news that those conversations have not yet borne fruit.

It’s disappointing news for those looking to get their hands on a PS5, as it looks like demand will continue to outstrip supply for the foreseeable future. Despite those struggles, PS5 has still become the fastest-selling console in US history, for both dollar and unit sales.

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Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

Like most games with a dedicated fanbase, Titanfall 2 is no stranger to seeing players attempt to break one of its more challenging records. Early in the game, players are taken through a virtual tutorial that ends with a final run through a gauntlet of enemies, putting the various skills they’ve been taught to use. During the recent free weekend for the game, one player by the handle of Cash_Mayo broke the Gauntlet record with a blistering pace of 11.10 seconds.

If it looks like magic or the use of a noclip cheat code, what’s happening above is actually the use of Titanfall 2’s wall-running abilities being combined with grenades to provide an extra-explosive boost to speed. Yes, that’s right, Cash_Mayo was blowing up their legs in an effort to shave time off the previous speedrun record. Cleverly, Cash_Mayo also took advantage of the space between Gauntlet runs to start at full speed, surging to the new lap record in the process.

Titanfall 2 has enjoyed a surge in popularity lately thanks to its free weekend, proving that there is still an audience for developer Respawn’s series of mechs and pilots. While the studio has confirmed that plans for a new Titanfall game will have to take a backseat as it continues to grow its successful battle royale Apex Legends and works on an original IP, Respawn hasn’t written the franchise off entirely.

Whatever the future does hold in store for Titanfall, it’d be worth releasing the game at a time when it isn’t caught in the middle of two of the biggest action game franchises on the planet.

The long wait for a new Venom movie is almost over. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is opening only in theaters later this year, and IGN has teamed up with director Andy Serkis to exclusively break down the first official trailer for the hotly anticipated sequel.

Check out the video in the player above or embedded below, and then read on to read the highlights from Serkis’ director’s commentary.

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Eddie and Venom’s Dysfunctional Relationship

Right away, the trailer makes it clear Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his “other” are having a difficult time cohabitating the same body. Eddie is trying to put his life back together and rebuild his career as a journalist. But the symbiote only cares about playing the role of Lethal Protector — beating up evildoers and satisfying its bottomless hunger.

“They are now what is, in effect, the Odd Couple stage of their relationship,” Serkis says. “They’ve been together for… a year and a half, say, since the last story. And they’re figuring out how to be with each other. And it’s like living with this maniac toddler. Eddie is really struggling. He can’t concentrate. He’s trying to get on with work. And he, of course, only thinks about himself anyway, on the whole.”

Serkis continues, “So having this other being in a small space in his little flat, it’s like looking into kind of a weird, screwed-up mirror version of himself. And Venom of course feels trapped, because he can’t leave Eddie’s body unless he has his permission. And when they go out, the deal is – you live in my body, you live by my rules. And we’re under threat. We’re in a dangerous position here. We’ve got to keep quiet. And nobody must know because of all the things that happened in the last story, if people find out and get a grip of what’s going on then we’ll both be hauled into Area 51 and examined.”

In other words, as much as the sequel is about the long-awaited showdown between Tom Hardy’s Venom and Woody Harrelson’s Carnage, it’s clear Eddie will continue to be his own worst enemy.

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Cletus Kasady’s Eddie Brock Obsession

The first Venom movie introduced Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady via a post-credits scene, with the incarcerated Cletus promising: “When I get outta here, and I will, there’s gonna be carnage.”

That scene implied some sort of existing relationship or connection between the two characters, and the trailer for the sequel shows Cletus has developed quite an interest in Eddie during the months in between movies. In fact, he seems to almost be the Hannibal Lecter to Eddie’s Clarice Starling.

Serkis makes it clear Cletus is drawn to Eddie because he senses a kindred spirit. Eddie, meanwhile, sees this relationship as an opportunity to dig into Kasady’s twisted past and uncover the burial sites of his missing murder victims are buried, thereby reigniting his own journalism career.

“They both had strange upbringings with strange relationships with their parents and their families. And there’s an inherent loneliness that they both recognize in each other,” Serkis says. “Cletus actually reaches out and will only speak to Eddie Brock. That’s at the beginning of the story, we learned that he’s the only one he’ll speak to. And the cops, therefore, want Eddie to go in and investigate and try and discover where some of the bodies, some of the many bodies of Cletus’s victims are.”

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“He’s on a mission,” Serkis adds. “But also, he’s self-serving in only the way that Eddie can be. He wants to get in there and maybe he can make a story, get back to what he wants to do most, which is writing and the written word and being a journalist. So this sets up really the confrontation, or the false relationship, that Eddie sort of pretends to have with Cletus, in order to get information out of it.”

As the trailer shows, Cletus’ madness is reflected through the strange, intricate drawings lining the walls of his cell. Those drawings may or may not have a special significance to the plot, but they definitely offer insight into the terrifying mind of Cletus Kasady.

“Cletus has an extraordinary child-like but vivid imagination and mind, and he expresses himself by drawing,” Serkis says. “His cell is completely covered with these really bizarre markings and expressions. It’s like his anger and frustration and his sadness and his desperation and his loneliness.”

Finally, for fans curious about the drastic change in Cletus’ hairstyle between movies, Serkis indicated the change is meant to reflect the passage of time and the evolution of Cletus’ mental state.

“We wanted to give a sense that he’s been in there for some time and that he’s gone through various changes. … so that we could really [see] what’s going on with the darkness of the character.”

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How Does Shriek Fit In?

While Carnage is clearly the central villain of this story, the sequel is also introducing Naomie Harris’ character Francis Barriston (aka Shriek). In the Marvel comics, Shriek is both a partner and lover to Carnage. While Serkis is keeping mum on whether or not the two will be romantically intertwined in the movie, he reveals she directly ties into the movie’s emphasis on troubled characters with abusive parents.

“She’s a damaged soul and she really has suffered in her childhood,but there is a real vulnerability about her, and she’s in a lot of pain… She’s been living in isolation for years, years and years,” Serkis says. “With all of these characters, what’s so beautifully drawn about them is that they’re multi-faceted, they’re totally truthful and believable, and yet … She’s dangerous too and I think she has her own sense of fairness and being just, and I think when that line is crossed, then you see a very, very dangerous, dark side to her, and that’s what we wanted to do with the character.”

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Serkis does confirm the sequel will explore the tension between Eddie and his ex-girlfriend Anne Weying (played again by Michelle Williams). At this point, Anne is still in a relationship with Reid Scott’s character, Dr. Dan Lewis, but Serkis teases the old spark may still be there.

“She’s kind of made a decision in her life, ‘I’ve got to move on. I can’t be with this person. He’s totally unreliable. He’s not truthful. He’s a ride, and I’ve enjoyed this wild kind of character that I’ve been with, but he’s not for me. At the end of the day, I’ve got to find someone who I can trust, who I can move on and be with and form a reasonable partnership with him, just not be thrown around all the time by this craziness.’”

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Bringing Carnage to Live-Action

It wouldn’t be much of a superhero movie if the main villain remained powerless and behind bars the entire time. The trailer makes it clear Cletus will cheat death during his attempted execution, somehow bonding with a piece of the symbiote and becoming Carnage.

“This character was so much fun to work on in design and to take [from] the comic world,” Serkis says. “It was wonderful having the opportunity to take this character that’s never been seen before on screen, as much as you do get to know him in our story and to really play with the physicality, how he moves, how he extrudes his tentacles.”

In the comics, the symbiotes grow progressively stronger with each new host, meaning Carnage is usually far too powerful for either Spider-Man or Venom to handle alone. But Serkis explains that his movie seeks to reflect the differences between Venom and Carnage. Cletus may not be the physical heavy-hitter Eddie is, but his deranged personality opens up a whole new world of abilities, including some fans have never seen before.

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“He can turn to mist. He can turn to all manner of tendrils. He can take different forms. He can weaponize, he can do all of these different things,” Serkis says. “With all symbiotes, they reflect the person who is their host. So the darkness of Carnage, the playfulness, the wit, the strangeness. Cletus has a real intelligence and… a real sense of humor, and we wanted to reflect that in the symbiote that is linked to him.”

Given Serkis’ history with motion-capture performances (playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot series, etc.), it should come as no surprise he brought that experience to bear on his first directorial assignment. Serkis tells IGN a great deal of attention was paid to the way these characters move on-screen and highlighting the physical differences between Venom and Carnage.

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“Venom is… pretty straightforward in a way. He’s like a quarterback. He’s very grounded, very physically sort of heavy, and like a quarterback where brute force is very much his thing. Whereas Carnage, in the same way that Cletus is manipulative psychologically and physically, he can take your energy and completely shift it for you. So we wanted the whole movement style to be very idiosyncratic and off-kilter and strange, and you just can’t pin him down. It would be like trying to have a fight with an octopus basically.”

Serkis adds, “Also, what we were able to do, which was amazing, was to go and work with dancers and actors on a performance capture stage, and then see things come to life and then use little bits and practice, just trying stuff out. It was a really exciting period of building the movie actually was Carnage movement tests. That was a really exciting part of it.”

Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens only in theaters on September 24 in the US, September 15 in the UK, and September 16 in Australia. For more on the sequel, find out whether Venom: Let There Be Carnage takes place in the MCU, learn about Carnage’s new powers, get our two cents on why Venom doesn’t need Spider-Man and check out the new Venom 2 poster.

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