First trailer for 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' is a serial killer symbiote meets the Odd Couple... and it kinda works

If you thought Venom was a ferocious character, you (in the words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive) ain't seen nothin' yet, folks. Because there's a new symbiote in town, and he'd have no problem eating Ms. Chen at the bodega.

The first trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage has arrived, and is here to say that the first movie was just a warm-up for how bad things can get when a symbiote bonds with a human host. This time around, Eddie Brock (the returning Tom Hardy) and his ravenous alien pal will face off against Cletus Kasady, an unhinged, remorseless, and red-haired serial killer with an alien goo of his own. Not a very good combination. Kasady is played by Zombieland's Woody Harrelson, who made a brief appearance in the mid-credits scene of 2018's Venom. Behind the camera, motion capture maven Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings) takes over the directorial reigns from Ruben Fleischer.

Check out the trailer now:

The first trailer finds Eddie and his symbiote Venom living life with a fairly symbiotic relationship, making breakfast and shopping together. There's definitely more of that buddy cop vibe between the two as they find a way to coexist, and it looks to be just as weird and funny as it was the first time around. It basically seems like Venom has become just another member of the neighborhood at the point of the second movie. But all that changes when Kasady gets his own (redder, meaner) symbiote.

Michelle Williams and Reid Scott also return to reprise their roles of Anne Weying and Dan Lewis respectively. Naomie Harris is among the newcomers, playing the antagonist known as Shriek. Stephen Graham and Sean Delaney have been cast in undisclosed roles. Screenwriter Kelly Marcel, who co-wrote the first movie, takes solo credit for the sequel.

Sony/Marvel

While critic reviews for Venom were middling, its global box office performance was out of this world. The movie ended up raking in over $850 million against an estimated budget of $110 - $116 million. Even the character's comic book co-creator, Todd McFarlane, was pleased with the way the antihero was depicted onscreen, telling SYFY WIRE that it was a marked improvement from Venom's live-action debut in Spider-Man 3.

"To me, I just wanted to see a big hulking character, which the director, Ruben Fleischer, put on the screen," he said. "If you remember Spider-Man 3 when they had Venom, he wasn't very big. I remember sitting in the theater going, 'Ahhh, that can't be it! We're not over yet! He's gotta get bigger, doesn't he? Ahhh, darn it!'"

Originally scheduled to open in October 2020, Venom: Let There Be Carnage was pushed to Friday, Sep. 24 of this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.