Venom 3’s Powerful Marvel Villain, Explained

The weirdest comic book sub-franchise of them all is, somehow, about to get even weirder. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has stood at the top of the mountain for well over a decade at this point, while its main competitor in DC Studios has struggled to keep pace and is now enacting a full-scale reboot under James Gunn and Peter Safran. Meanwhile, Sony’s standalone “Spider-Man” franchise took the “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach when it folded both Sam Raimi’s movies and Marc Webb’s duology into the MCU proper with “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” And then there’s “Venom,” which has complicated the multiverse beyond all logic and reason and had a grand time doing so. However, even all that nonsense featuring tons of decapitations and silly accents pales in comparison to what the impending threequel just revealed.

Today brought fans the final trailer for “Venom: The Last Dance” where, believe it or not, the official unveiling of Venom-Fish wasn’t the most noteworthy thing about it. Instead, after weeks of playing coy about which new character was meant to fill the shoes of prior antagonists like Carnage and Riot, Sony has finally unleashed its main baddie — and it’s not even close to what anyone expected. Previous guesses centered around established figures from the source material such as Lasher or Toxin, but Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and his symbiote alter-ego have made it as plain as can be.

Meet Knull, one of the most powerful forces of evil in the entire Marvel legendarium and, yes, one of the very few characters who could be considered on par with the Mad Titan Thanos himself. Buckle up, folks, because “Venom: The Last Dance” is throwing the most powerful threat yet at our favorite bromance.

Leave it to Venom to inadvertently bring an eldritch god to the cozy confines of Earth. The marketing for “Venom: The Last Dance” has already established that the symbiote’s latest threat brings things full circle. As he explains once again in a snippet of ominous dialogue, “My home … has found us.” That comes in the form of what he describes as his “creator,” all while images flash by of the symbiote home world known as Klyntar — which includes what looks like an imposing throne, of sorts. This lines up perfectly with the Marvel canon, which depicts Knull’s long and epic journey from essentially the most ancient and powerful force of evil in existence and the creator of the symbiotes to an exile.

First introduced into the pages of Marvel Comics in the issue titled “Venom (Vol. 4)” #3 in 2018, Knull is a relatively new addition to the franchise. As glimpsed by his long flowing hair and throne in the trailer footage, this being boasts a pretty gnarly design from the comics that might as well be a Dungeons & Dragons character brought to life. The various artists clearly envisioned Knull as a primordial and almost elemental force of darkness, initially living in a cosmic void empty of all light. The invasion of Celestials kickstarted his quest to branch out into the rest of the universe and use his terrible creations, the symbiotes, as a weapon in his campaign against any who would stand against his mission to bring everything under the domain of the void. As for his actual powers, these include superhuman strength, the ability to manipulate dark energy, near-invulnerability, regenerative healing, time travel (yeah, seriously), and, oh yeah, the capacity to create life through the symbiotes. Thanos, eat your heart out!

Fast forward an eon or two and Knull would eventually become the leader of the symbiote hive-mind, conquering various worlds and even going so far as to attack Earth itself. When this goes awry, his own symbiotes turn against him and imprison him on the “throneworld” known as Klyntar. “Venom: The Last Dance” probably won’t maintain all of that backstory, but the key details remain the same: the throne, the planet of Klyntar, and Knull’s godlike status as the creator of the symbiotes.

Knull might be about to enjoy his first live-action adaptation for the big screen, but not all of the character’s most influential artists were made aware of this turn of events. Neither Marvel nor DC has had a great track record when it comes to giving proper credit and compensation to the hardworking talent who created these comic book characters in the first place (and, in turn, made these billion-dollar media franchises possible). Famous public figures such as the late Stan Lee managed to remain at the top of Marvel Studios’ priority list, earning cameo after cameo throughout every movie. But others, such as the now-esteemed Jack Kirby, never received his fair share of the spotlight. (In one egregious instance, Marvel and DC artist Jim Starlin actually admitted that he received more money for creating minor villain Anatoli Knyazev/K.G. Beast in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” than he ever did for, in his own words, “Thanos, Gamora, and Drax showing up in any of the various Marvel movies they appeared in, combined.”)

Is history about to repeat itself once again? In a new post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Knull co-creator Ryan Stegman revealed that he had absolutely no idea that Sony had even been considering the use of the villain for “Venom: The Last Dance.” As he self-deprecatingly explained, “Yes, I did co-create [Knull]. No, I didn’t know until today that he was gonna be in ‘Venom: The Last Dance.’ Yes, I do expect to finally be able to afford that lazy river moat around my house.” Ideally, Sony and Marvel will do right by both Stegman and fellow co-creator Donny Cates.

Yes, I did co-create knull. No, I didn’t know until today that he was gonna be in Venom: The Last Dance. Yes, I do expect to finally be able to afford that lazy river moat around my house

— Ryan “x-men man” $tegman (@RyanStegman) September 12, 2024

“Venom: The Last Dance” will swing into theaters October 25, 2024.