In just over a month, Tom Hardy will do the symbiotic boogaloo one last time Venom: The Last Dance. The new trailer for the threequel gave an interesting glimpse of the latest Venom comics baddie Knull, and for fans of those comics, there is one thing on their mind: did the creators of this villain get their due, financially?
The answer to that question is sadly (and repeatedly) no. Knull was created by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman at the beginning of their games Poison he went back in 2018, and his whole story is that he is the creator of the Symbiotes (also known as Klyntar) and a powerful cosmic god known as the Dark Lord. After his brief appearance in the The Last Dance’s trailer, both Cates and Stegman tweeted about his inclusion. Despite not knowing this was happening beforehand, Stegman joked that Marvel’s big check would help him “finally pay for that lazy river around my house.” Cates, on the other hand, made his thoughts on the matter clear.
lol pic.twitter.com/VLKtdhmG9N
— DONNY CATES (@Doncates) September 12, 2024
If you don’t know, comic creators are famously not compensated financially well (or really, at all) when a comic is adapted into a movie, show, etc. These are gigs for hire, and things are definitely biased in their favor, as Marvel artist Jen Bartel recently discussed in relation to Marvel Snap. In particular, they appear in the film or for the first time, or receive thanks and mention in the credits, but not always. Last year, for example, Insomniac Games infamously did not provide Cates and Stegman with elements of their programs. Poison use usd for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Cates later said he learned The Last Dance’s script and he seems to be fine with whatever direction things are headed. “It’s much bigger, more ambitious than you can imagine,” he said of the film. “There is a movie being made where the character Ryan and I created is fighting the actor Todd McFarlane. […] Nothing is going to take away from me thinking it’s fucking rad.” And regarding Knull specifically, he scoffed: “Holy shit. That’s how you treat the king.”
Does this mean Knull is going to cross over to the MCU side and cause problems for Tom Holland and whoever is playing Venom out there? When will we (probably) get more Venom: The Last Dance will hit theaters on October 25.
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