Even though Tom Hardy’s blockbuster didn’t hit theaters until October 2018, attempts to turn Venom into the star of his own movie began as far back as 1997, when David S. Goyer wrote a script that was set up at New Line Cinema with Dolph Lundgren in talks to star as Eddie Brock.
The symbiote may have dodged a bullet there given how Lundgren’s last stab at a Marvel Comics antihero was swept under the rug when The Punisher bombed in 1989, but across town another character with close ties to Todd McFarlane was making their feature film debut.
