Screenwriter Kelly Marcel will also direct Venom 3

Back in June, star Tom Hardy shared that the script for the third Venom was complete. Now, Deadline has reported that the movie’s director will be none other than screenwriter Kelly Marcel, who also penned and produced the first two installments. Per Variety, this will be her directorial feature debut. Her other writing credits include Fifty Shades Of Grey and Cruella.

Venom, an alien symbiote with a taste for brains that shares a body with San Francisco journalist Eddie Brock, is part of Sony’s universe of Marvel characters. Due to rights issues, the studio has been building out its own slate of movies outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which includes Morbius and the forthcoming Kraven The Hunter and Madame Web, though Spider-Man has been loaned out to Marvel Studios for crossovers with the Avengers.

The first Venom, directed by Ruben Fleischer, launched in 2018. It was followed by last year’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which was helmed by Andy Serkis, who knows a thing or two about filming motion capture sequences. Deadline describes the third flick, announced in April, as “the final chapter.” Hardy has been particularly involved with this role (these roles?), and the Mad Max: Fury Road star received a story credit alongside Marcel on all three scripts.

Following Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Brock made a brief cameo in the multiverse-busting Spider-Man: No Way Home, leaving behind a trace amount of the Venom symbiote in the world of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. After seeing the three live-action Spider-Men team up, some fans have hoped that Andrew Garfield will get another shot at web-slinging in Venom’s universe after the tepid reception for his pair of Amazing Spider-Man movies. If it is indeed the end for this version of the lethal protector, Marcel and Hardy must be planning to send him off in style.