Riz Ahmed is Playing Riot in Venom

Footage from Ruben Fleischer's Venom movie that was shown at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 has confirmed that Riot, another symbiote, will be featured. Riot is a symbiote that can jump from host to host, but for at least part of the movie it will be in control of Riz Ahmed's character, Carlton Drake.

Riot made its first appearance in the comic series Venom: Lethal Protector (upon which Riot's sibling symbiotes: Scream, Phage, Agony, and Lasher.

Venom is an origin story for the lethal symbiote, and stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a journalist who becomes Venom's host while investigating the sinister Life Foundation. Ahmed's character is a scientist who works for the Life Foundation and experiments on the symbiote after it crash-lands on Earth. Other footage in the Comic-Con sizzle reel showed Drake conducting tests with symbiotes on other subjects - but it seems he will either fall foul of his own experiments, or voluntarily become Riot's host. Fleischer indicated that we'll also see Riot take control of other characters, saying, "He has a unique trait. You don't know where Riot is going to turn up."

The villain that everyone is expecting to show up in the movie, Carnage, was not confirmed during the , though Fleischer did tease that, "There may be other villains in Venom. But we don't want to give it away." A report last month claimed that Woody Harrelson will be playing Cletus Kasady, Carnage's host. Harrelson has said that he doesn't have much screen time in Venom, but there are plans for him to have a bigger role in the sequel.

Venom occupies a rather odd position in the landscape of superhero movies. Sony and Marvel Studios reached a deal that allowed Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, butclassic white spider symbol on his chest. However, when asked if Spider-Man and Venom would ever meet and fight, Tom Hardy joked, "Go toe to toe with Tom Holland? I’ll have a go!" Afterwards, on the red carpet, CinemaBlend reports that Fleischer said, "I mean... any true fan of Venom would love to see him go against Spider-Man. So I have to think that's gonna happen at some point."

Unfortunately the footage shown was exclusive to Hall H, and Sony didn't unveil a new trailer for Venom, but we'll be sure to keep you updated on any further news - including confirmation of other symbiote villains.