Venom, Spider-Man's arch-enemy, to get his own spin-off film Venom, Spider-Man's arch-enemy, to get his own spin-off film

Spider-Man’s nemesis Venom is to appear in his own standalone film, due in cinemas in October next year.

Variety reports that the enemy of Marvel’s web-slinging superhero will be brought to the big screen by Sony Pictures. There’s no word on who will play the sharp-fanged villain, but screenwriters Scott Rosenberg (High Fidelity) and Jeff Pinkner (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) will write the script. The film will be released on 5 October.

Venom first appeared in the Spider-Man comics in 1988. An alien symbiote, the creature requires a human host to survive. The character was initially conceived as a supervillain but has since become an antihero in the manner of Deadpool, who appeared in his own film adaptation in 2016.

A Venom movie has long been rumoured. In 2008, Variety reported that a spin-off was in development, with Gary Ross (The Hunger Games) in talks to direct. However, the project stalled. Sony, which now owns the film rights to the Spider-Man franchise, is said to be keen to expand the Spider-Man universe in the same way that Marvel has with The Avengers. Sony has also been interested in making a film featuring a collection of Spider-Man villains in the manner of Suicide Squad.

Meanwhile, Sony is refreshing Spider-Man himself. This summer will see the release of Spider-Man Homecoming, a new reboot starring Tom Holland that will focus on the superhero’s high-school years. Holland is the third actor to don Spider-Man’s red and blue costume in recent years, after Tobey Maguire, who played him in a trilogy of films between 2002-2007, and Andrew Garfield, who appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).

Venom has appeared in film before. He was the primary antagonist in Spider-Man 3 and made a brief cameo in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.