Tom Hardy teases Venom 3 being his "last dance" as the Marvel character

Tom Hardy has provided an update on Venom 3 – and hinted that it may well be his last appearance as the Marvel antihero, too.

The actor, who plays Eddie Brock, the down-on-his-luck reporter who finds himself the witting host of a unruly flesh-hungry symbiote, took to Instagram on Thursday, June 16, to share the front page of the trilogy capper's screenplay. While it didn't specifically state that it was the third Venom movie's script, the doodle on it – a black face with big, diagonal eyes, a jagged mouth, and a long red tongue that ends with the number '3' – makes it clear enough.

Later, Hardy shared the same shot to his Instastory, tagging Sony Pictures alongside the words, 'Here we go' and a GIF that reads "LAST DANCE".

Like its predecessor, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the story for the next instalment will be written by Hardy and Kelly Marcel. As it stands, we have no idea as to its plot, though it's worth remembering that the second movie ended with detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) seemingly absorbing the super-sonic powers of Naomie Harris's villain Shriek. There was also that post-credit scene, of course, which saw Eddie and Venom get mysteriously transported to a universe where Tom Holland's Spider-Man exists, and could lead into the upcoming movie.

Sony continuing the franchise is hardly surprising given that Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which was directed by Andy Serkis, earned a respectable $506.9 million at the worldwide box office. When asked about the franchise's future back in October 2021, Hardy explained to Digital Spy: "These things [usually] come in threes. If there's going to be a new one – and they depend heavily on the success of each individual one, so you can't count on them ever happening again – everyone has got to be as if it was the last one.

"But I think it's really important, if you go into something, thinking that one, two and three are the same... the same story, the same film. So that you don't surprise yourself by being caught out by suddenly having to do a third from nowhere."

While we wait for Venom 3, or whatever it may end up being called, why not check out our roundup of the upcoming movies being released throughout 2022 and beyond.