Woody Harrelson Confirms Role in Venom and its Sequel

A rumor circulated in February that Woody Harrelson would be playing Cletus Kasady (Carnage) in Sony’s forthcoming Venom movie, but that rumor circulated and sort of died off. Now, in an interview with Collider, Harrelson has confirmed his inclusion in the forthcoming Venom and, surprisingly, its as-of-yet-unannounced sequel.

The aforementioned rumor suggested that Carnage would be introduced at the end of the first Venom movie when part of the symbiote jumps from Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock to Harrelson’s Kasady during a prison sequence, and thus, Carnage is born—cue the follow-up.

Harrelson, speaking to Collider, all but confirms this by saying that he is barely in the first Venom movie and that his role is more prominent in the sequel. His role in the initial film is a glorified cameo that seems to be the all-too-familiar end of a super-hero movie stinger that entices fans to see the sequel whence it’s released.

“I’m in a little fraction of this movie, but I’ll be in the next one, you know?” Harrelson said, though he revealed nothing about his character. The actor added that he chose to sign on for Venom because it had “a really wonderful script.”

Between Solo: A Star Wars Story and Venom, Harrelson seems to be flexing his acting muscles more and more in the world of modern franchise cinema, and that is not a bad thing in the slightest. Harrelson is one of those actors who is endlessly watchable and his screen presence, no matter the role, has a certain charm that allows him to steal most scenes he is in.

Venom is directed by Ruben Fleischer (best known for Zombieland, on which he worked with Harrelson), stars Hardy as Eddie Brock and Riz Ahmed (The Night Of) as the antagonistic Dr. Carlton Drake, and will be released on Oct. 5 via Sony Pictures Entertainment. Check out the most recent Venom trailer below to see if the most 1990s-ish villain can be even remotely interesting in the 21st century.