This weekend marks the end of an era and closes out the story of Sony’s Venom. Since 2018, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock has been a weirdo doing goofy-ass slapstick in ways that have upset some but delighted others, and Venom: The Last Dancepromised to be a last ride of some kind for the duo before another iteration of Eddie (or another character entirely) puts on the alien skin suit. And audiences have responded to it with a bit of an “ehhhhhh…”
Per the Hollywood Reporter, the gooey threequel is looking at $51 million domestic box office at time of writing, well below the initial $65 projections placed upon it pre-release. For comparison, the first movie started at $80.2 million in North America (a then-record for October movies in 2018), and 2021’s Let There Be Carnagebegan at $90 million, impressive back then because of the pandemic. The international audience has come in clutch; it’s apparently doing very well outside North America, and expected to pull in $124 million for a reported global total of $175 million.
Last Dance opened to negative reviews and spotty word of mouth, and it probably doesn’t help some folks are getting their Halloween party on. Still, it took the top spot for the weekend, happily knocking Smile 2 down to second place; the horror sequel made another $10.3 million domestically and $12.5 million overseas, bringing its global total to $83.7 million. And speaking of sequels to scary movies, Variety reports Terrifier 3 is pegged to make another $4.5 million and end the weekend at $44 million, triple the combined grosses of its predecessors.
Venom basically has next weekend all to himself, as far as big genre movies are concerned. Things truly kick in on week two with A24’s religious horror flick Heretic and the post-apocalyptic flick Elevation on November 8. The following weekends see the action Christmas flick Red One(November 15), Gladiator II and Wicked: Part I(November 22), and Moana 2(November 27).
Got thoughts on Venom: The Last Dance? Let us know in the comments below.
Our ailing hearts might someday owe a debt of gratitude to a venomous spider. Scientists in Australia are about to begin a clinical trial for a heart attack medication that was originally derived from the venom of the K’gari funnel web spider.
While there are now several classes of drugs that can prevent or treat heart issues, cardiovascular disease remains the single largest leading cause of death. So any new treatments that can safeguard our heart are still worthwhile. Researchers at the University of Queensland and elsewhere think they’ve landed upon such a candidate that was first isolated from a venomous species of funnel spider found on Australia’s K’gari island (formerly known as Fraser Island): a protein called Hi1a.
These spiders are thought to have some of the deadliest and most complex venom ever found in spiders, but only a handful of the 3,000 proteins in their venom are considered outright lethal to humans, while others like Hi1a could have practical applications. The team’s earlier research in animals has found evidence that Hi1a can protect the heart when it’s being deprived of oxygen during a heart attack. It appears to do so by preventing the signals that cause heart cells to effectively self-terminate when there’s no oxygen around. That same attribute could also be used to improve the survivability of donor hearts during organ retrieval.
After having obtained substantial funding from the Australian government’s Medical Research Future Fund, the researchers are now ready to start a clinical trial of Hi1a for heart attacks and heart donation, which is expected to run for four years.
“This MRFF funding will enable us to undertake human clinical trials to test a miniaturized version of Hi1a as a drug to treat heart attack and protect donor hearts during the retrieval process,” said Glenn King, a researcher at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, in a statement from the university. “If successful, it will improve patient survival and quality of life, dramatically expand the pool of donor hearts available for transplantation, and significantly reduce healthcare costs.”
Many promising drug candidates have failed to live up to their potential in human trials, either because they’re not as effective as hoped in people or because they’re not as safe and tolerable as earlier studies suggested they would be. So it will take time to know whether Hi1a is the real deal. But researchers are generally hopeful about the future of deriving new treatments from the venom of animals, a field known as venomics. Just last year, for instance, scientists in Brazil began a Phase II human trial testing their spider venom-derived drug as a treatment for erection dysfunction. King and his team also are hoping that Hi1a could be used to treat strokes and certain forms of epilepsy.
So while spider venom might not give anyone superpowers, it could turn out to be a rich source of novel and important medicines.
It’s been over a year since Peter Parker and Miles Morales joined forces for their epic crossover adventure game on the Sony PlayStation 5. Now they are swinging their way to PCs early next year.
Sony announced at New York Comic Con today that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is getting a PC release on January 30, 2025 on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The fans who got to hear the news first also witnessed the new trailer for the game’s PC remake.
The new release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will come in two different versions and both have plenty of extra features and perks for those very patient PC players. The “Standard Edition” comes with the full game and all the PS5 updates such as 14 new suits, “Ultimate Levels,” new styles of symbiote suits and an action figure mode in photo mode. The “Digital Deluxe Edition” also comes with five exclusive new suits for Peter and Miles each, early unlocks for Peter’s Arachknight suit, Miles, Shadow-Spirit suit and the web grabber gadget and additional items for photo mode.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 features the two most famous names from the Spider-Verse (not counting Stan Lee) in an expanded version of the Big Apple taking on one of the longest lists of villains in just about any comic book based game. The two take on bad guys like Kraven, Black Cat and Scorpion without giving away too many appearances. Of course, the one most of the fans looked forward to seeing is that deep voiced, slimy symbiote Venom.
Game developer Insomniac confirmed that the studio has no plans to develop story DLC for 2023’s action-adventure Spider-Man 2, likely disappointing many fans who had been hoping for more content.
Spider-Man 2’s New Web Wings Make It Feel Like A Proper Sequel
On October 18, Insomniac and Sony announced that Spider-Man 2 was coming to PC in January, just 15 months after it launched exclusively on PlayStation 5 to rave reviews. It’s one of the fastest turnarounds we’ve seen for a PlayStation-published exclusive title to make the leap to PC and seems to indicate that Sony is fully committed to bringing its hit games to Steam. But for fans hoping that today’s PC port news would come alongside the reveal of story DLC for Spider-Man 2, well, bad news: That’s not happening.
In a post on the official PlayStation Blog announcing Spider-Man 2‘s PC port and what fans can expect, Insomanic’s senior community manager Aaron Jason Espinoza confirmed that the studio isn’t working on or planning any further story DLC for Spider-Man 2 on PC or PS5.
“While we have no additional story content planned for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, we’re delighted to bring all of our previously released post-launch content to the PC version, including New Game+, new suits and color variants, Photo Mode features, and more,” said Espinoza.
Fans had hoped for Spider-Man 2 DLC after the first Insomniac Spider-Man game received three paid DLC episodes that made up an expansion known as The City That Never Sleeps. However, Miles Morales, a standalone Spider-Man spin-off game launched in 2020, never got DLC. Still, fans were hopeful, even wondering if they’d get more Venom content. Today’s news confirms that Insomniac is moving on from Spider-Man 2. The studio is working on a previously confirmed Wolverine game as well as an unannounced X-Men game, which we learned about via malicious hack in late 2023. A Spider-Man 3 is also reportedly happening, too.
In just over a month, Tom Hardy will do the symbiotic boogaloo one last time in Venom: The Last Dance. The threequel’s new trailer provided a tantalizing glimpse of recent Venom comics baddie Knull, and for fans of those comics, one thing is on their mind: did the villain’s creators get their due, financially?
The answer to that question is depressingly (and repeatedly) no. Knull was created by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman fairly early into their Venom run back in 2018, and his whole deal is that he’s the creator of the Symbiotes (aka the Klyntar) and a powerful cosmic god known as the King in Black. After his brief appearance in Last Dance’s trailer, both Cates and Stegman tweeted about his inclusion. Despite not knowing this was happening beforehand, Stegman joked that Marvel’s big fat check would help him “finally be able to afford that lazy river moat around my house.” As for Cates, well, he made his thoughts on the matter pretty clear.
If you don’t know, comic creators famously do not get financially compensated well (or really, at all) for when a comic character gets adapted to a movie, show, or so on. These are work-for-hire gigs, and things aren’t really skewed in their favor, as Marvel artist Jen Bartel recently discussed in relation to Marvel Snap. At most, they show up to the film or premiere, or get a thanks and mention in the credits, but not always. Last year, for example, Insomniac Games infamously didn’t credit Cates and Stegman for the elements of their Venom run usd for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Cates later said he read Last Dance’s script and is seemingly positive about whatever direction things are headed. “It’s so much bigger, so much more ambitious than you could imagine,” he said of the film. “There’s a movie being made where a character Ryan and I created is fighting a character Todd McFarlane created. […] Nothing is going to rob me of thinking that’s fucking rad.” And in regards to Knull specfically, he teased: “Holy shit. That’s how you treat a king.”
Does this mean Knull’s going to make his way over to the MCU side of things and cause problems for Tom Holland and whoever’s playing Venom over there? We’ll (probably) find out more when Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters on October 25.
The Epic Games Store is once again handing out a very good game for free. This time around it’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns, one of the best games of 2022 and one of my favorite superhero adventures out there.
How Alan Wake 2 Builds Upon The ‘Remedy-Verse’
Marvel’s Midnight Suns, in case you missed it, is a turn-based tactical RPG that blends some light life-sim-like elements—like romance and dates—with fantastic tactical combat on par with XCOM and Fire Emblem. But, unlike those games, Midnight Suns lets you kick cars at classic Marvel villains like Venom and Sabretooth. And right now, you can kick cars at Venom for free via the Epic Games Store.
Marvel
Don’t get it twisted, though; Midnight Sunsis more than just fun gameplay and cool combat. The game also features a compelling narrative that plays out unlike anything seen in the MCU or most other superhero games. I mean, how many superhero movies or games let you spend time with Blade in a book club?
And don’t let its card-based action scare you away, as the game isn’t a deck builder or anything like that. It just uses cards to represent powers and moves you can use during each turn. However, game director Jake Solomon did express regret about using cards, suggesting that might have been the reason why the game didn’t sell as well as expected.
“I think cards were a major problem,” Solomon told VGC. “I think it was a good design solution, but I think I was naive about what people would think when they saw the mechanic was cards. Not everyone on my team was behind the idea, but they trusted me.”
Last summer, Marvel Comics boldly announced that it would return to “The Most Notorious Spider-Man Story Ever Told,” to which the world cried out “You’ll really have to be more specific!” After quickly clarifying that it was a sequel to Spider-Man: Reign, the world cried out again: “Oh. The one with the radioactive jizz?” Now, we know a little more about the hows and whys.
Exclusive First Look at Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Painting
Today, Marvel announced that Spider-Man: Reign II would begin this summer, a five-issue miniseries that sees Reign’s original writer/artist, Kaare Andrews (for whom Reign was his first major comics work), return to the world of his 2006 story—an alt-future tale that starred an older, grizzled Peter Parker. Peter grapples with a long life lived as Spider-Man, that, as previously mentioned, is now mostly remembered derisively for its revelation that in this continuity, Peter’s radioactive bodily fluids were responsible for giving his wife, Mary Jane, the cancer that ultimately took her life. Peter recounts this information to Mary Jane’s corpse, having just dug it up out of the cemetery.
It’s a lot—but Andrews recognizes that, and sees a return to Reign as a seasoned creative as chance to, well, reign in some of the impulsive tendencies of his younger self. “Reign was full of tragic and dark absurdity that only a young creator could come up with. A way to challenge the idea of personal power and responsibility,” Andrews said in a statement. “But as I’ve grown older, and after sitting with this story for so long, I started to ask myself this question, ‘What if there was a way to go back and change what happened? What if I could fix everything?’”
Image: Kaare Andrews/Marvel Comics
“Many call it the most infamous Spider-Man story ever told. But for me, what’s kept it relevant is the love behind creating that book,” Andrews added. “This is the character I grew up with, the one that taught me how to be a man, how to live with failure and keep standing back up, the unrelenting force of trying to make things better.”
Little else is currently known about Reign II, other than it will introduce older versions of both Felicia Hardy, aka the superthief Black Cat, and Miles Morales as a second Spider-Man. As you can see from the alternate cover art for the first issue above, the fact that Miles is replicating the infamous cover to Reign #1, this time hugging Peter’s grave instead of Mary Jane’s, suggests maybe there’ll be an even grimmer ending for Peter than, well, hugging his wife’s decaying body.
We’ll find out when Spider-Man: Reign II begins on July 3.
The latest installment in Columbia Pictures‘ Tom Hardy-led Venom franchise now has an official title and an earlier release date.
Director Kelly Marcel‘s Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters Oct. 25, Sony announced Tuesday. Starring Hardy, Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film had been untitled and moves up two weeks from its previous release date of Nov. 8.
In addition to helming the feature, Marcel also wrote the script, with the story credited to herself and Hardy. Hardy, Marcel, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal and Hutch Parker serve as producers.
Hardy returns as the Marvel antagonist that he originated in 2018’s Ruben Fleischer-directed Venom. Andy Serkis took over directing duties on the 2021 follow-up Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Marcel is making her feature directorial debut after earning writing credits on both earlier movies.
This will now be the third Venom film to hit theaters in October, and the pre-Halloween space has worked out nicely for the franchise. The first movie surpassed $850 million globally, while the sequel crossed the $500 million mark worldwide.
Hardy took to Instagram in November to announce that the film, billed as the final one in the series, had resumed production after taking a break due to last year’s actors strike. The project had initially been planned for a June 2024 release but was later moved to November on account of the labor stoppage.
In his November post, Hardy referred to the film as the “last dance” and added that the work “doesn’t feel as hard when you love what you do and when you know you have great material and the support at all sides, of a great team.”
Venom: The Last Dance is the latest title in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. It follows Sony’s release of Madame Web, which stars Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney and has underperformed since hitting theaters last month.
The 1.3 million files leaked as part of the recent ransomware attack on Insomniac Games contain tons of confidential information, including Sony’s projected plans for all of the studio’s upcoming games on PlayStation 5 and beyond. Those alleged roadmaps include a standalone Venom game, a Ratchet and Clank sequel, multiplayer spin-offs, and multiple X-Men games by the year 2030 and beyond.
Spider-Man 2’s New Web Wings Make It Feel Like A Proper Sequel
It sounds like more than fans would have expected, even from Sony’s most prolific first-party studio. Two roadmaps are included in the leak, which was first reported by Australian cybersecurity site CyberDaily and is now widely circulating on social media.
The first one begins in 2023 with Spider-Man 2 and shows a Venom game arriving in 2025, Wolverine launching in 2026, Spider-Man 3 coming in 2028, a new Ratchet and Clank coming in 2029, and the studio’s first X-Men game releasing by 2030. That slate then culminates with a “New IP” planned for 2031-2032.
But video game development is messy and release dates are notoriously fickle and projects are often canceled, especially this early on. Another set of slides viewed by Kotaku, labeled “Insomniac Games Roadmap Extended” includes even more projects with slightly different dates. There, Wolverine is expected in 2025, followed by Spider-Man 3 in 2027, X-Men in 2029, a “New IP” in 2031,” X-Men 3 in 2033, and a second “New IP” in 2035. Multiplayer spin-offs are also sprinkled in there, with Spider-Man 2‘s online mode arriving in 2024, Wolverine’s online mode arriving in 2026, and X-Men’s Online mode arriving in 2028.
That’s a ton of projected games and dates, so here’s a quick summary:
2024: Spider-Man 2 multiplayer
2025: Venom
2025-2026: Wolverine
2026: Wolverine multiplayer
2027: Spider-Man 3
2028: X-Men muliplayer
2029-2030: X-Men
2031-2032: New IP 1
2035: New IP 2
Insomniac’s future seems clear: spawn an entire new Marvel Cinematic Universe on PlayStation. And while we don’t have tons of details for these upcoming projects, one slide does give a pretty clear rundown of what fans can expect from the standalone Venom game. The game will apparently continue the storyline of Spider-Man 2 and setup Spider-Man 3, briding the games the same way Miles Morales did between the first two. Venom and various Spider-Heroes will be swappable as they fight through “Carnage-infected” NYC boroughs. Insomniac is estimating the game will be about 8-10 hours total.
What fans can expect from the future of Insomniac’s Spider-Man series is murkier. Some of the materials reference the possibility of Spider-Man 3 being split into two parts. It seems like the studio will then shift fully over to X-Men by the end of the decade, though these plans are obviously subject to change. It’s possible the multiplayer spin-off will provide a live-service model for Sony to keep rolling out new missions and mini-story beats, though unless assisted by outside studios, that amount of post-launch work probably wouldn’t dovetail too well with Insomniac’s other ambitious plans.
How exactly will Sony be paying for all this? Interestingly, another slide from the leaks shows the apparent terms of the PS5 maker’s licensing deal with Marvel for the X-Men games. The franchise will be all but exclusive to PlayStation until 2035, with over $600 million in “committments.” It’s a huge bet on the comic book mutants. We’ll see how it pays off by the time the PS6 comes out.
Venom 3 has resumed production post-strike, star Tom Hardy says.
The actor, who portrays the title character, took to social media Friday to announce that the franchise’s third and final installment had returned to set following the 118-day actors strike that ended Nov. 8.
“The Last dance — thankfully we are back to shooting,” he wrote in an Instagram caption for a photo of himself, director Kelly Marcel and stunt double Jacob Tomuri. “It’s been and continues to be a lot of fun this journey — there’s always hard turns to burn when we work but doesn’t feel as hard when you love what you do and when you know you have great material and the support at all sides, of a great team.”
He took a moment to share how thankful he was to all the teams involved, including cast, crew, friends and family, expressing what it’s been like for him to be surrounded by such talented and passionate departments in the Venom franchise.
“I want to mention very briefly how proud of my director, writing partner and dear friend Kelly Marcel I am,” Hardy continued, “watching you taking the helm on this one fills me with pride, it is an honour. Trust your gut, your instincts are always spot on.”
The Mad Max actor also shouted out his friend, stunt double, brother and “face plant chief operator,” Tomuri.
The upcoming installment in the franchiseoriginally began production in late June in Spain, with Marcel also serving as the writer, but stopped production when the actors strike began in July. Newcomers include characters played by Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Venom 3was originally set to hit theaters July 12, 2024, but was pushed back to Nov. 8, 2024, when the strike ended to give it more time to finish shooting and complete postproduction work.
Sony has proclaimed Spider-Man 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game in the company’s history. The PlayStation 5 exclusive sold 2.5 million copies on launch day alone.
Spider-Man 2’s New Web Wings Make It Feel Like A Proper Sequel
Released on October 20, Spider-Man2 is Sony’s first major first-party blockbuster to launch only on the PS5, rather than cross-gen on the PS4, which has over double the install base. With just over 40 million PS5s sold so far, that makes the initial sales success of the web-slinging sequel even more impressive.
Reviews have been glowing so far, including Kotaku’s. Despite some misgivings about bloat and a lack of experiementation, I mostly loved my time with Spider-Man 2. The game currently has a 91 on Metacritic, making it one of the most posivitively recieved of 2023. A post-launch update coming by December is expected to add more features like a new game plus mode.
The original Spider-Man released in 2018, selling 3.3 million units in three days. That narrowly edged out God of War’s record at the time of 3.1 million in the same period. God of War Ragnarok reclaimed the title of fastest selling PlayStation Studios game last year with 5.1 million sales in its first week. We’ll see if Spider-Man 2‘s 24-hour record leads to even greater sales over that same period.
Sony is currently aiming to sell 25 milion PS5s in the current fiscal year, which would itself be a record-breaking number of new console sales. It’s no doubt relying on Spider-Man 2 being a “next-gen” exclusive to help drive those sales throughout the holiday season, despite competition from a number of other stellar games this year. A new “slim” model dropping in November might also help, despite an increased price tag for the all-digital version.
Insomniac Games hasn’t yet revealed if Spider-Man 2 will be getting future DLC or a bigger expansion in the vein of Horizon ForbiddenWest’s Burning Shores adventure. The studio did say it’s checking fan feedback to the game as it plays around with the possibility of a Venom spin-off.
Update 10/10/2023 4:27 p.m. ET: Sony announced in its latest quarterly results this week that Spider-Man 2 went on to sell over 5 million copies in its first-full week. That puts it just behind God of War Ragnarok, but it’s a more impressive stat overall since the new game is only on PS5, where as Ragnarok on PS4 as well.
Miles Morales has a lot of stylish new suits in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Unfortunately, one of the new Miles suits is getting virtually tarred and feathered online for being one of his absolute worst superhero looks. Someone probably should’ve let Adidas know, because now the athletic clothing company is selling the much-chastised suit in its collaboration event with the game.
Spider-Man 2’s New Web Wings Make It Feel Like A Proper Sequel
Adidas announced its Marvel’s Spider-Man 2-inspired clothing collection back in October. At the time, the collection only featured a stylish shoe inspired by Peter Parker’s venomized Spider Suit. It’s got a pretty clean design, all things considered. Now, the shoemaker is selling compression tops, leggings, and running shoes inspired by Miles’ “Evolved Suit,” which just so happens to be the suit fans so dislike in the game.
The Evolved Suit, which you unlock toward the game’s finale, modifies the hero’s OG black and red spandex with Colgate-blue accent marks and an open-top mask exposing his starter locs. The consensus from a majority of Spider-Man 2 fans is that this new original suit isn’t his best look.
Here’s a closer look at Adidas’ Miles-inspired sportswear.
Image: Adidas / Sony / Marvel / Insomniac Games / Kotaku
Image: Adidas / Sony / Marvel / Insomniac Games / Kotaku
Image: Adidas / Sony / Marvel / Insomniac Games / Kotaku
Both the “moisture managing” top and the “3D-sculpted pouch” leggings cost $50 a pop. The “soft and comfortable” shoes will cost you a staggering $230. At the moment, the collection is only available to adiClub members and is set to launch on November 3. As you might’ve guessed, players aren’t taking a liking to Adidas’ Miles collab outfits either, and are now claiming that the in-game suit is just product placement for the clothing company.
“I was in the ‘it’s not that bad” camp before but yeah fuck blatant product placement,” one user wrote on the r/Spiderman subreddit. “I thought it was just the shoes, I didn’t realize that the whole suit was Adidas.”
“[I saw] those shoes the very first glance & went “Is this an ad or something? These shoes look hella real’ Lo & behold,” wrote another.
“It makes even more sense when you change the suit colors, the shoes stay the same,” another said.
Kotaku reached out to Insomniac Games for comment.
My guess is that Adidas held off on revealing the Miles-inspired fits in its initial announcement of its Insomniac Games collab because it wanted to give players time to appreciate it in-game before revealing the physical product to the spoiler-averse public. If I were in charge of the collab, I would’ve gone all-in on making a fit inspired by Miles’ comfy-looking 10th Anniversary Suit instead.
Tom Hardy is an esteemed English actor, recognized for his compelling performances in a variety of roles, especially his portrayal of Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. His most recent projects include leading roles in the film Venom: Let There Be Carnage. He is also part of the upcoming crime drama movie The Bikeriders.
Here’s all you need to know about Tom Hardy, including whether or not he is married, his height, age, zodiac sign, whether or not he has kids, and his net worth in 2023.
What is Tom Hardy’s relationship status and is he married?
Tom Hardy is married. He has been married since July 4, 2014.
Tom Hardy has previously been in a relationship with Sarah Ward, whom he married in 1999 and divorced in 2004. He was also in a relationship with casting director Rachael Speed from 2005 to 2009.
Who is Tom Hardy’s wife?
Tom Hardy is married to Charlotte Riley. They have been married since July 4, 2014.
Charlotte Riley is a talented British actress, admired for her versatile performances in both film and television. She garnered attention with roles in Peaky Blinders and Wuthering Heights. Being married to actor Tom Hardy since 2014, they share a life both personally and in the limelight, often supporting each other’s acting endeavors.
Does Tom Hardy have kids?
Tom Hardy has three children. Their names are Louis Thomas Hardy, and two others whose names have not been publicly confirmed.
Tom Hardy’s eldest child, Louis, was born in 2008 to the actor and his ex-girlfriend, Rachael Speed. They met on the set of the 2005 historical miniseries The Virgin Queen. Tom has mentioned in an interview that Louis helped him prepare for his role in the movie Venom.
Tom has two more children with his wife, Charlotte Riley, whom he married in 2014. They welcomed their first child together in 2015, and while the couple has not publicly confirmed the name or gender of this child, various outlets have reported that they welcomed a baby girl. Their second child together was born in 2019, and similarly, the couple has not publicly confirmed this child’s name or gender either, but various outlets have reported that they welcomed a baby boy, named Forrest, after Tom Hanks‘ character in Forrest Gump.
What is Tom Hardy’s height and how tall is he?
Tom Hardy is reportedly 5 feet 9 inches tall.
This height is considered average for someone of his gender in the U.S., where the average height for males is 5’8″ and females ins 5’3”.
What is Tom Hardy’s age and how old is he?
Tom Hardy is 46 years old. His birthday is September 15, 1977.
On this day, the number one single on the U.S. music charts was Best Of My Love by The Emotions.
What is Tom Hardy’s Zodiac sign?
Tom Hardy’s Zodiac sign is Virgo.
This sign is for birthdays that fall between August 23 – September 22. Those who have the Virgo star sign are said to be analytical, diligent, meticulous, reliable, and practical. They are known for their strong sense of duty and their analytical outlook makes them excellent problem solvers.
What is Tom Hardy’s net worth?
Tom Hardy’s net worth is reportedly around $55 million.
This net worth includes Tom Hardy’s earnings from a successful acting career, with financially successful projects like Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, and the Venom series. He also has endorsements with brands like Hyundai, Kleenex, and Nike. Additionally, Hardy owns a residence in South West London and has a collection of cars, contributing to his financial ventures outside of acting.
Tom Hardy is most famous for his roles in Inception as Eames, The Dark Knight Rises as Bane, and Venom…
Tom Hardy is an English actor known for roles in films such as Bronson, Inception, Venom, and The Dark Knight…
Rachel Zegler is most famous for her role of Maria in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story, which was…
Spider-Man 2, the highly anticipated sequel to Insomniac Games’ blockbuster 2018 action-adventure game, is out today, October 20. And though there’s plenty to be said about the impossibly fast fast-travel, the fantastic opening scene, and the story thus far, there’s one thing that I can’t get off my mind: Peter Parker’s muscles.
Spider-Man 2’s New Web Wings Make It Feel Like A Proper Sequel
When I played through Spider-Man 2’s opening scene, which frequently has Peter and Miles Morales fighting side-by-side, I noticed that the former seemed more beefed up than in the original game. And I’m not alone: The replies in my post on X (formerly Twitter) wondering if Peter got on that protein grind are full of people remarking on his physique.
The term “caked up” is being thrown around, and not just when he’s in that skin-tight suit. Even when he’s not wearing the Spider-Man costume, Peter boasts a neck so thick he looks like a WWE wrestler. There’s certainly at least the illusion of a buffed-up Peter, but is this just the result of the sequel being a PS5-only release, and therefore able to make the most of the current-gen consoles graphical rendering power?
Or perhaps Insomniac, knowing that there are more tag-team fights in the sequel, decided to make Peter a bit thicker so you could better delineate between him and Miles mid-battle. Maybe Peter, despite struggling to keep a job, clean his recently deceased Aunt’s house, and otherwise live a well-balanced life, decided to up his creatine intake and start meal-prepping some ground turkey and rice.
But speculation without proof is irresponsible, especially for a journalist. So I tried to prove that Peter Parker is more muscular in Spider-Man 2 than he is in the original game. I’m an amateur weight-lifter myself, and I can recognize when a lat spread looks decidedly more spread-y than previous versions. But that’s not enough—I asked other journalists who are experts in the field (“a real twink to twunk moment IMO,” said io9’s James Whitbrook, who noticed Peter’s neck and chest definition the most). I texted an ex who once chided me for not mixing creatine into my diet. I pored over a video comparing the visuals from the first and second games, lingering far too long on his gluteal fold. That last one helped me see the differences in Peter’s base costume (color changes, adjustments to patterns, etc.) as well as the slight changes to his body, which could be the result of him aging, spending more time as Spider-Man rather than Peter, or a new workout regimen.
Screenshot: Nick930 / Insomniac / Sony / Kotaku
Here’s what I noticed. His neck is definitely thicker, which could be the result of an increase in weighted shrugs (both dumbbell and Kirk) and/or weighted neck extensions. His lat spread, or latissimus dorsi (which covers the width of your middle and lower back), is definitely larger and more defined, likely the result of lat pull downs and/or pull-ups.
Peter Parker’s cupcake in Spider-Man 1 and his actual cake in Spider-Man 2.Screenshot: Nick930 / Insomniac / Sony / Kotaku
Most importantly, his butt and hamstrings are more defined and juicy, which could be thanks to Romanian deadlifts, sumo squats, and/or glute bridges. The fact that he’s a superhero likely contributes to him having a far easier time gaining and toning muscle than your average person—though you will definitely see some results if you start mixing the aforementioned workouts into your daily routine. You’re welcome.
I reached out to Insomniac Games for comment regarding Peter’s physique, but did not receive a response in time for publication. Despite this, I can say with some confidence that Spider-Man 2’s Peter Parker is a bit more of a beefcake than he was in the previous game. Case closed. I’ll await my Pulitzer.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2is out, and that means we can talk about the game’s post-credits content and how the big PlayStation sequel seems to set up some very interesting, and very predictable, scenarios for future games and DLC. So uh, we’re gonna do it.
Spider-Man 2’s New Web Wings Make It Feel Like A Proper Sequel
But before we go any further, a big ol’ spoiler warning is needed. Seriously, I’m about to openly discuss Spider-Man 2’s ending and post-credits scenes. If you haven’t finished Insomniac’s latest PS5-exclusive open-world superhero action game yet and don’t want any surprises ruined before you reach the end yourself, this is your last chance to turn around. You can always come back and read this later! Only scroll down if you want Spider-Man 2 spoiled, understood? Good. Okay, let’s go.
Spider-Man 2 wraps up like most superhero stories, with our heroes—Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and Mary Jane Watson—saving the day, but not without some sacrifices. After Peter Parker aka Spider-Man freed himself from the symbiote suit, it re-joined with the dying Harry Osborn, best friend of Parker and MJ. From there, Venom was formed, took back an alien MacGuffin that then let him spread his symbiotic goo all over NYC, and eventually led to the citizenry being turned into symbiotic monsters. Things got rough.
Eventually, the Spider-Men and MJ work together and defeat the monsters, stop the invasion of New York, and Peter defeats Venom using a cool new suit. However, in the process, Harry nearly dies and is now in a coma. Norman Osborn—Harry’s dad, rich CEO, and former mayor—is very upset at Spider-Man and calls someone within his company to ask them to bring him the “G-Serum.”
Norman Osborn visits Doc Ock
ScereBro PSNU / Insomniac / Sony
That leads us to our first post-credits scene, featuring an angry Norman Osborn visiting Dr. Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus at the Raft—a prison for supervillains. Osborn has figured out that the doc knows who Spider-Man is and Harry’s dad really wants that information. When Osborn tells Octavius that the Spider-Men “ruined” his son, the villain says “good” and is happy that Osborn is experiencing “loss.” (Doc Ock doesn’t like Norman Osborn, in case you forgot.)
Then, after Osborn asks him what he’s writing, the supervillain menacingly replies “The final chapter.” This is ominous and also could be a reference to a controversial Spider-Man comics story arc that involved Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin and revealed that Aunt May didn’t die in a previous story but was being held prisoner by Goblin. It was not a fan-favorite arc at the time, and today, most people don’t remember it fondly.
But considering by the end of Spider-Man 2 Norman Osborn seems to be heading down the path that will lead him to become Green Goblin, Aunt May is dead, and Peter Parker is retiring as Spider-Man (something that happens in The Final Chapter, too), it appears that Insomniac might actually adapt this arc, but likely with some big changes. Or the devs and writers are just messing with fans.
Meet Albert Moon and his daughter
Anyway, after more credits, Spider-Man 2 has one last surprise to share in its second and final post-credits scene.
During the main campaign, Miles Morales is too busy being Spider-Man to meet up with his mom’s new boyfriend. It’s clear that Insomniac is teasing something, but it’s not until the very end of the game, after all the credits, that we get the reveal.
Miles and Hailey, after sharing a kiss, are hanging out in his room when they’re interrupted by a knock at the door. Miles’ mom is excited that her son will finally meet the new man in her life and answers the door to introduce…Albert and his daughter Cindy. The music swells dramatically here, in a way that tells you “Hey, this is important.” But most players will likely not understand why. So what’s up?
Well, Cindy Moon is a character from the comics more commonly known as Silk. She’s a relatively new spider-person, only appearing in comics since 2014. But she has a direct connection to Peter Parker. In the comics, Moon got her powers from the very same spider that bit Peter Parker. She has similar powers to him, though she’s able to produce organic webbing and doesn’t rely on cartridges. She also boasts an eidetic memory and is sometimes said to be faster than Peter, but not as strong.
The Norman Osborn scene is pretty easy to piece together. The dude hates Spider-Man so much that he is willing to work with someone he also hates, Doc Ock, to get his revenge against the webhead. I wouldn’t be surprised if some other villains get involved too and team up to finally kill Spider-Man. And because Peter Parker is seemingly retiring from the role, that will mean Miles is forced to deal with it on his own until the OG Spider-Man is forced out of retirement one last time to stop his archenemies. That seems like the kind of story that you save for a big sequel rather than DLC.
Image: Marvel
As for Cindy Moon aka Silk, I’m not as sure where Insomniac is going with this tease. It’s possible Silk shows up in DLC and later plays a bigger role in the (not yet announced but going to happen) Marvel’s Spider-Man 3. It’s also possible that she gets her own spin-off, standalone adventure like Miles Morales, introducing players to the newest spider-person and helping get her settled in the universe before the events of the next big entry.
I’m very into the idea of a Silk-focused spin-off game and I’m excited that Insomniac didn’t just use Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Gwen as some fans had predicted or hoped, but instead introduced a newer, lesser-known character into the franchise.
However, Stacy’s most famous storyline, one which has been recreated in TV and film, involves her getting killed by Green Goblin after he learns who Spider-Man is. So perhaps Gwen Stacy will be a part of the next game, but not as a superhero. Again, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Feel free to discuss all of this and other spoilers from Spider-Man 2 in the comments below. This is a safe place where you can chat about anything that happened in the game or its previous entries without fear of spoiling anybody.
Sony is preparing to sell a Spider-Man 2 PlayStation 5 bundle that will include a digital download for the game, presumably at a discount, as it ramps up plans to try and sell a record-breaking 25 million consoles this year. The company is already giving away free copies of older games to any players who activate a new PS5 in the next few weeks.
Tears Of The Kingdom’s Newspaper Questline And The State Of Hyrulean Journalism
The newSpider-Man 2 PS5 bundle was teased in an October 2 tweet. Sony confirmed to Kotaku it will be $560, the same as last year’s God of War Ragnarök PS5 bundle, saving new owners $10. The Spider-Man 2 version ships on October 20 alongside the launch of the game. Pre-orders aren’t yet live.
The sequel to the 2018 action adventure by Insomniac Games, Spider-Man 2 sees Peter Parker and Miles Morales team up together, complimenting one another’s abilities and trading off on the fly as they take on the hunter Kraven and the alien symbiote Venom. It’s one of the only first-party blockbusters that is a PS5 exclusive so far this console generation.
Sony revealed its intention to sell 25 million new PS5s this fiscal year back in April, telling investors in August it was prepared to take the “necessary measures” to make that happen. So far, that’s included discounting the old God of War Ragnarök bundle by an additional $50, and even giving away free downloads for critically acclaimed games like Horizon Forbidden West and The Last of Us Part 1. This “upgrade” promotion runs until 3:00 a.m. ET on October 21, meaning anyone who buys the Spider-Man 2 bundle could potentially get an additional game at no extra cost.
The new bundle is seperate from the special edition console that includes red and black face plates for the PS5. That went for $600 and is already sold out. Fortunately, Sony won’t be running out of Spider-Man 2 codes when it comes to the regular bundle.
Update 10/2/2023 5:05 p.m. ET: Sony confirmed the price in an email.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the creative director on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 revealed that he was nervous about finding the right person to play the sequel’s notorious big bad, Venom. That is, until he heard the unmistakably awesome voice of Candyman actor Tony Todd.
The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Pikmin 4
Speaking with EW, Insomniac Games’ Bryan Intihaar disclosed that deciding on the right voice actor for Venom was “one of the things I was avoiding for as long as possible because I was so scared of who we were going to get to do the voice.” Although Insomniac’s previous Spider-Games, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, garnered high praise from critics as some of the best iterations of the web-slingers, Intihaar said pressure was on to cast the perfect Venom because “people would have a lot of opinions on it.” But Todd, he says, was up to the task.
“Everything we talked about [with] Venom — that sense of strength, that sense of fear, that sense of overwhelming, so different from Peter — Tony embraces that completely in the performance,” Intihar told EW.
After hearing the booming voice of Tony Todd in the trailer for 2021’s Candyman (in which Todd reprises his role as the title character of the 1992 original), all Intihar’s fears went away. Luckily for Insomniac, Todd had already submitted an audition for the role of Venom.
Spider-Man 2 PS5 director says Todd is the perfect Venom
As Intihar has noted in previous interviews, the tone of Insomniac Games’ take on the iconic Spider-Man villain will be darker than some other depictions, treating Peter’s struggles with the symbiote as akin to battling an addiction.
“We wanted to try something very different, and I don’t think you can get much more different from Doc Ock than you do Venom,” Intihar said. “It’s about power, it’s about strength, it’s about being slighted, it’s about Peter being involved much more in the creation of Venom. I think that’s what attracted us.”
Narrative director Jon Paquette echoed Intihar’s sentiments, saying Parker’s internal struggle with Venom impacts those closest to him, adding that “there’s a lot of juicy drama that we can get from that.”
“For us, Venom is the host plus the symbiote,” Intihar said. “You don’t get Venom without both of them being bonded together. What Tony represents is that bond. I think, if anything, casting Tony made us feel more confident in the visual design of the character.”
Yes, Insomniac Games’ Venom has a grotesque mouth just like in the movies
Insomniac Games gave fans an exclusive look at Venom’s design in EW’s article, revealing the space-faring symbiote’s numerous teeth and imposing ink-black physique as he roars in the center of a city block surrounded by Humvees. While drafting early concept art for Venom, senior art director Jacinda Chew revealed that the trickiest design components involved his freakish monster mouth.
“One of the challenges we had throughout production was, how much does [Venom] talk?” she says. “I remember we did some concepts early on [of] does Venom have lips? Does he laugh? Does he smile? Does he frown? It’s a fine line between making this creature scary and intimidating, but then also, I guess, relatable.”
For all the monster-fuckers out there who fell to their collective knees at Tom Hardy’s Venom having a gaping maw, I hope Spider-Man 2 throws them a bone. Perhaps it could offer up a tiny crumb of the anti-hero’s silly side by having him give Parker and Miles Morales a shit-eating grin before their inevitable two-on-one brawl.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases on October 20 for PlayStation 5.
The developers of the upcoming PlayStation 5 sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 say that the game will try to strike a balance between humor and heart while respectfully depicting the darker tones of Peter Parker when he is using his Venom symbiote suit.
The Best Marvel Snap Deck For Winning With Agatha Harkness
During Sony’s hour-long PlayStation Showcase last week, we saw over 12 minutes of new gameplay footage of Peter Parker and Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to close out the show. The upcoming PlayStation 5-exclusive action game looked to be going for a similar mix of web-slinging traversal, kinetic fight scenes, and palatable humor as its predecessor, but with the added bonus of Parker being pretty aggressive while wearing his new Venom symbiote suit.
Peter’s internal battle with Venom will be like battling an addiction
While one side of the internet churned out memes comparing the edginess of the Spider-Man 2 game’s Parker to Tobey Maguire’s “Bully Macguire” performance in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 movie (which was a camp masterpiece), another group of fans was in awe of Peter Parker voice actor Yuri Lowenthal’s Sasuke Uchiha-esque performance as a newly jaded web-head under the Venom symbiote’s alien influence.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Spider-Man 2 creative director Bryan Intihar revealed that Parker’s internal battle with the black parasitic space goop that’s making him so aggro in the game will be akin to a person battling addiction. Unlike the more camp depiction of director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 Venom, Intihar said Peter getting bonded to the symbiote suit is “not something we want to make fun of.”
“The theme of addiction is prevalent, especially because of the symbiote. We did a lot of research, not only on previous stories with the symbiote, but also just looking at when [Peter] is bonded, what can that feel like? Not to go into too many things about how it plays in the narrative, but we want to treat it very seriously,” Intihar said. “So, it’s about really playing into those themes of addiction, how that can impact someone’s personality, impact the people around them, and you’re going to see that it’s not just how it’s impacting Peter on his own, but also those close to him. You’re going to see that play out throughout the game.”
Miles Morales will give Spider-Man 2 players a symbiote-angst break
While in the PlayStation Showcase footage it is definitely jarring to see Lowenthal’s Parker go from wise-cracking about being New York’s “Spider-Cop” and meekly goading the stoic Silver Sable into giving him a high five to dumping rescued civilians to the ground and doing whatever this is to Kraven’s goons, Intihar and game director Ryan Smith told Eurogamer that Spider-Man 2 won’t be entirely about Peter being an asshole because playing as Miles Morales will offset the game’s darker moments with a bit of levity.
“I think you saw that in the gameplay reveal,” Smith said. “We have the moments with Ganke and Miles and the Falcon that he’s trailing behind—the Talon drone—and then at the very end, you get that line about Peter changing and Miles saying, ‘You know, he’s never like that,’ right? So we have those human elements, both on the serious side of where we see the symbiote affecting Peter, but also on the lighter-hearted side.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been pretty hit or miss with serious scenes, with a tendency for humor to abruptly rob them of their weight. Time will tell whether or not Spider-Man 2 will succeed in balancing its heart and humor with its darker moments, but Intihar is confident that the game landed on the right ratio of wit and drama.
“What we’ve talked a lot about is—whether it was Marvel’s Spider-Man or Miles Morales—our games are all about still having heart and humor,” Intihar said. “It’s really finding that balance between those darker themes and characters, but also delivering that very human story where there’s a lot of heart and humor… I think that’s what was tricky. But I do think we found that nice balance at the end of the day.”
While I know there’s a narrative that especially for things like big blockbuster superhero movies, you shouldn’t listen to critics and only the fans, the truth is…they’re not very split all that often. Critics, of course, have given “fresh” aggregate ratings to every single MCU movie except one, and when we do see splits, they’re maybe 10-20% different than fans in either direction, at most. Often, they’re almost the same.
Then, there are outliers. The biggest outlier that’s always cited when this issue of Rotten Tomatoes scores comes up is the gap between critic scores for Venom and its audience scores. The gap there is 50%, with critic scoring it a 30%, and fans rating it an 80%. The fans won that one, given that Venom was a big box office hit, spawned a sequel and an entire Spider-villain universe from Sony (though we did get Morbius, so who really won there?).
Now, Black Adam is the second superhero movie ever to open up a gap that wide. At the moment, it is exactly the same spread. Critics have scored Black Adam at 40% in aggregate, while thousands of fans have rated it a 90% instead, a 50% gap. Critics are scoring it tied with Joss Whedon’s Justice League. Fans are scoring it higher than everything except Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Yeah the DCEU is weird.
Venom
RT
Again, this really does not happen as often as fans seem to think, so when you do see a gap like that, it’s actually pretty significant. Early reports are that Black Adam is going to do well at the box office, already setting records for The Rock personally, so it may track along with Venom that way as well. It seems likely that The Rock’s promised plans to build out Black Adam, the JSA and a future rivalry/alliance with Superman may indeed come to pass if the film performs well enough.
So what happened here? Why are critics missing the mark on this one (and having seen the film, I agree that most of them are missing the mark)? The problem with Venom was that it was dumb fun that critics were perhaps trying to judge more like a traditional MCU movie. The same thing might be said for Black Adam and its murder-happy antihero, and some of these reviews are pretty eye-rolling:
“An unpleasant, cacophonous barrage of symbols and sounds. It adds up to little more than a two-hour montage of action and comedy concepts divorced from rhythm, or comprehensibility, or real humanity. The Rock used to be fun—but this is no fun at all.”
“A paint by numbers superhero film that refuses to actually embrace the moral ambiguity of the original character. Not wildly offensive but unfortunately not particularly entertaining. Had this come out 10 years ago perhaps it wouldn’t feel so anemic.”
“Black Adam wants to be the film that “rights” the DCEU, but it’s just another messy, shallow entry into a sloppy canon that won’t commit to real ideas.”
Like sheesh, lighten up a bit. I mean granted, I’ve hated plenty of DC superhero films in the past, but I’m really just not connecting these criticisms with what I actually saw onscreen with Black Adam, and it appears audiences are not either. For as “wrong” as subjective opinions can be, it does seem like critics were off-based with this one.
