Sony Pictures screened exclusive footage of Venom at Comic-Con International that confirmed one key detail teased the earlier trailer: that the film’s Venom costume don’t feature the white spider symbol emblazoned across the torso.
The emblem has been a central element of Venom’s design for three decades, and actually predates the introduction of the fan-favorite villain/antihero. In Marvel comics, the alien symbiote was unwittingly brought to Earth by Peter Parker from the distant Battleworld, where he’d acquired it as a new costume. When he finally separate himself from the life form, it found a new host in Eddie Brock, and became Spider-Man’s enemy. As such, the white spider symbol was intended to mock the wall-crawler.
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That element is missing from Sony’s Venom, but director Ruben Fleischer has a perfectly good reason: This film’s version of Venom isn’t linked to Spider-Man.
“If you look at the comics, in Venom, there is just elements of white within his suit,” he told IGN at Comic-Con. “Because our character does not originate from Spider-Man, it makes no sense to put a spider on his chest. We tried to be as accurate as we possibly could, even though some people feel it’s inaccurate, but there is a lot of white and we wanted to give him a distinctive pattern.”
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That said, Fleischer still felt that having some white in Venom’s design was important, especially considering that a lot of the scenes would be shot during the night. Without some other color to provide some contrast, it would be difficult to see the character. That’s where the filmmakers came up with the white veins around Venom that form into a different shape over his chest.
Swinging into theaters on Oct. 5, Venom is directed by Ruben Fleischer and stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, and Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake/Riot.