The latest trailer for Venom: The Last Dance teases the epic conclusion for Venom’s storyline and introduces one of Marvel Comics’s newest and scariest villains: Knull, the God of Symbiotes. Venom: The Last Dance is the third entry in the Venom franchise, and Tom Hardy reprises his role as the Lethal Protector. The movie will also feature Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, with Stephen Graham reprising his role as Patrick Mulligan, who in the comics becomes Toxin – a character many fans assumed would be the primary threat for Venom.
The latest trailer for Venom: The Last Dance has revealed that the film will introduce the creator of the symbiotes, Knull. In the trailer, the scientist, played by Juno Temple, reveals that the symbiotes have been coming to Earth seemingly to escape a mysterious figure, teased in the trailer as Knull. Venom seemingly has something Knull is after, and as the previous trailer showed, the symbiotes have launched a full-on invasion of Earth to get whatever Venom has. Watch the trailer below.
Knull’s Marvel Comics History and Cinematic Future
Knull is a relatively new character in Marvel Comics. Created by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, he debuted in Venom Vol. 4 #3 in August 2018, just two months before the release of the first Venom movie. Knull was created in part as a promotional push for the Venom movie, introducing a new significant character to the Venom solo comic. He was retroactively established as the previously unnamed god in Thor: God of Thunder #6 back in 2013, and the source of the Necrosword. This living symbiote weapon was wielded by Gorr the God Butcher in Jason Aaron’s first story arc in the Thor comics that later became the basis for Thor: Love & Thunder.
In the comics, Knull created the symbiotes and used them to spread across the universe, with himself at the center, establishing the Symbiote Hive. The comics recently established that Knull also has a part to play in the Marvel Multiverse, as he is tasked with maintaining the 616 comic universe by the Celestials, working within it, as opposed to outside of it, like the Beyonders. Knull was the main villain in the 2020 comic event The King in Black, and over the past few years, has become a major villain in the Marvel Comics universe, being a cosmic threat that has come into conflict with not just Venom but also Thor and the Silver Surfer. He’s even killed a Celestial.
No actor has currently been confirmed to play Knull. The brief shot of him in the trailer has led many fans to speculate already that this is the final shot of the movie and that while Knull’s presence will be felt, he will not be featured as a main foe. Instead, his other creations, an alien species known as the Exolons, can be seen attacking Venom on the plane and in Vegas. Knull might be a tease for another Sony Marvel project, possibly setting up a potential crossover film for the various Sony Marvel properties like Venom, Morbius, and Kraven the Hunter, where these “villains” need to team up and stop an even bigger threat. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Sony to put the final shot of a film in their trailers, as both The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Venom‘s final scenes were featured in their respective trailers.
Venom: The Last Dance
opens in theaters on October 25, 2024.