With anticipation for the sequel to the 2018 hit film Venom building, fans are looking for any tidbits of information that are out there for the film. To satisfy them, Sony has released the second trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which provides a more detailed glimpse into the story director Andy Serkis is going to tell.
With the first two trailers garnering plenty of reactions online, fans now know a decent amount about the new villain Carnage, as well as the continued power struggle between Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock and the symbiote Venom. Yet there are several nods to the first film that fans may have missed, as well as vague references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will surely get fans excited once they notice them.
The Return Of Mrs. Chen
When Venom was initially released, audiences were introduced to an array of interesting characters throughout the film. In addition to Eddie Brock and Venom, viewers were introduced to Eddie's ex-wife Anne and the main villain of the movie Carlton Drake, who later transformed into the deadly symbiote Riot.
One character that had very limited screen time is Mrs. Chen, the bodega owner that Eddie befriends. In the first trailer for the sequel, we see Mrs. Chen return. In one scene, she tells Eddie that the chocolate he desires hasn't been delivered, which rouses the Venom persona that exists in Eddie's mind. Venom is upset enough that he suggests eating Mrs. Chen instead to punish her, which Eddie quickly rebuffs. It's a fun little note for fans to see a minor character from the first film return, and they will have to wait to see if Venom gets his way and actually eats Mrs. Chen.
Eddie Visiting Cletus In Prison
By now, most viewers have been conditioned to stick around until the end of most superhero movies to see what next film is teased. Even though it exists separately from Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies, Venom was no exception to the rule with Marvel's tradition of post-credit scenes. Venom's scene involved Eddie going to a prison to conduct an interview, and the interviewee was revealed to be Cletus Kasady.
The scene doesn't reveal too much about what the two characters talk about before the movie officially ends, but the possibility that fans could see the interview in its entirety in the sequel is likely. There are several glimpses of Eddie and Cletus speaking to each other in the prison, and it's clear that the movie begins with Cletus in prison, so calling back to that post-credit scene in some form seems inevitable.
The Daily Bugle
One of the most famous newspapers in all of Marvel Comics is the Daily Bugle, and it surprisingly appeared in the first trailer for the film after being absent from the first film. How big of a role anyone at the Daily Bugle will play, including a famous web-slinger, has not yet been revealed, but knowing it exists in this universe would have been a cool enough Easter egg on its own. However, if fans look very closely at the shot of the paper, a more interesting detail is visible.
In Sam Raimi's three Spider-Man films, fans got to see the paper's logo multiple times. The logo used in Raimi's trilogy is the same one shown in the Venom trailers, which is causing fans to speculate that the Raimi movies occur in the same universe as the Venom movies. Venom appeared in Venom to appear in the MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home, there are possibilities for this potential multiverse mashup to occur.
Ravencroft Institute
As Cletus Kasady is locked up in prison, some may have questioned where the criminal was serving his time. In a fleeting moment in the trailers, an exterior gate is shown with the words "Ravencroft" on it. This is proof that Kasady is in fact locked up in the Ravencroft Institute, a prison that is a holding facility for dangerous criminals.
Ravencroft is a fantastic choice to include in the movie as there is strong comic book history with that building. It is where Eddie is imprisoned after the symbiote fuses with him and gets him arrested. It also happens to be the location where Eddie and fellow prisoner Cletus first get acquainted, and where the red-haired killer has his first with the Carnage symbiote.
Shriek
There are several dangerous inmates at Ravencroft, and though Cletus Kasady may be the most famous inmate fans see in the trailers, he is not the only one that gets a few moments of screentime. A character who emits powerful soundwaves from her screams is shown to be an accomplice of Kasady, and this character actually has a deep history with Cletus in the comics.
Shriek, played by Moonlight actress Naomie Harris, is a fellow prisoner with Kasady, but she is more than that in the comics. She and Kasady met at Ravencroft while they both broke out of prison, and enter a twisted romantic relationship. It is not yet known how big of a role Shriek will play in this film, but her powers of sound manipulation have the potential to be a major asset to Carnage in whatever his plans are once he gets out of prison.
Cletus' Backstory
Most comic villains have a backstory that explains their immoral actions and motivations. In Kasady's case, fans get small glimpses of what exactly he has done to get himself locked up in Ravencroft, and why he is going to be an even more difficult villain for Venom to battle than Riot was in the first film.
Kasady is a serial killer, having murdered an unknown amount of people up until this point, and he has no remorse for any of the blood on his hands. He even goes as far as to say that he has tasted blood before after he bites Eddie, insinuating that he will drink the blood of his victims. There may not be a more contemptible villain in all of Marvel Comics than Cletus Kasady, and that was before he became Carnage, so seeing what he does after fusing with the symbiote will make for an even more dangerous killer.
The Avengers
The Daily Bugle is well established in these trailers, so it's no surprise that the newspaper will be featured in the movie. However, with the newspaper comes the opportunity for several different headlines to appear within its pages. Most of the headlines will assuredly be related to events in the film, but in the trailers, fans were able to spot a very curious one concerning another popular Marvel property.
In the background of one shot, there is a brief glimpse of an obscured headline that is referencing the Avengers. Earth's Mightiest Heroes have never been established in the universe Venom takes place in, but this shot could be showing fans that they do in fact exist congruently. While the possibility that these Avengers are the same heroes of the MCU is unlikely, fans are curious to see if there is any payoff to that Easter egg in the film.
