An eight-second first look at Tom Hardy in full Venom mode leaked online Monday — hours before the full trailer for Sony’s upcoming Marvel movie “Venom” was due to be released.
Fans, who had criticized an earlier teaser of the movie that showed Hardy only as photographer Eddie Brock, welcomed the reveal of the character’s alter ego, the horrifying, sharp-fanged creature known as Venom.
“Well holy s—, Venom looks like Venom,” someone with the Twitter handle MisterBatfleck wrote in a caption attached to the leaked eight-second footage.
A rep for Sony declined to comment.
The film, which is not considered a spinoff of the Sony-based “Spider-Man” franchise even though the character originated in the Spider-Man universe for which Sony controls film rights, also stars Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Michelle Williams and Woody Harrelson.
Ruben Fleischer is directing the film, based on a script by Scott Rosenberg (“Jumanji”) and Jeff Pinkner (“The Dark Tower”). Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing with Amy Pascal.
Hardy himself took to Instagram on Sunday to tease a new “Venom” trailer screening at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week.
After the first trailer dropped, “Venom” fans were enraged that the trailer didn’t actually show Venom.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh2pNn0Hjb1/?hl=en&taken-by=tomhardy
“Ah, now eventually you DO plan to have Venom in your, in your VENOM movie, right? Hello?” wrote one fan, while another said, “How can you tease the movie without showing the character? GG Sony… You deserve to be sold at this point.”
Looks like Sony got the memo.
“Venom” is due in theaters October 5.
See the footage below.
Well holy shit, Venom looks like Venom. pic.twitter.com/rQh5bgmMn4
— TheBatstan (@TheBatstan) April 23, 2018