Dr. Carlton Drake is like a man possessed in today’s first official TV spot for Venom.

At only 30 seconds in length, it doesn’t offer much in the way of new footage, but there is a shot of Riz Ahmed’s brooding supervillain ordering his goons to seize control of Eddie Brock before things get out of control. And, well, let’s just say things don’t exactly go according to plan…

For Drake, that means switching to plan B – a plan which involves dosing himself with an alien parasite to become Riot, an imitator of Venom’s and one of the five symbiotes birthed under the Life Foundation, which just so happens to be Drake’s lavish HQ.

The film begins with Eddie Brock, a down-on-his-luck reporter, investigating the Life Foundation and its human experiments, only to fall prey to Venom and its mind-altering abilities. And the rest is history.

What’s particularly interesting about Venom is that Sony Pictures is hoping to spin out its own Marvel Universe based on characters closely associated with Spider-Man. The sinister symbiote will be the first one to tumble off the production line, though the fact that Tom Hardy has already signed for three movies tell us that Sony wants to use his character as the anchor point of this fledgling franchise – not unlike how Iron Man shaped the early years of the MCU, for instance.

And that’s before we even consider those other Spider-Man spinoffs featuring Morbius, Kraven and other big-name villains synonymous with Peter Parker. So, you know, no pressure…

We’ll find out whether Venom sinks or swims on October 5th. Oh, and let’s not forget about those relentless rumors linking Woody Harrelson with the role of Carnage, Eddie Brock’s most formidable foe.

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