Tom Hardy Is Going To Play A 'Spider-Man' Villain

All I want in this life is more Tom Hardy. Really, that's all. Give me Hardy by the heaping helping, and I'm a happy woman. So, you can only imagine my delight when I learned that Hardy will star in the Venom movie, with Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer directing. This is a marvelous development for fans of Hardy's, as well as fans of the Venom character in the Spider-Man universe. The former fandom gets to bask in Hardy's villainous side once more, and the Spider-Man universe gets a jolt of new life, thanks to Hardy's talents.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hardy is reportedly in final negotiations for his role in Venom, slated for a 2018 release through Sony. THR's report indicates that Sony is hoping that Venom will reboot (or, at the very least, revive) their Spider-Man universe back to greatness. Venom will reportedly be the second effort in this new direction since Spider-Man: Homecoming is already set to officially reboot this world.

Even better than the reboots, though, is the fact that this means we'd get Hardy back in villain mode once more. Sony Pictures made the exciting announcement on their Twitter on Friday with Hardy sporting a Venom T-shirt for the occasion. It's been a hot minute since he was playing a comic book villain; his previous villainous go-round as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises is almost five years old. Fans need you back in our lives, villainous Hardy!

Hardy has always had a knack for bringing out the nuances in his various roles, but when he breaks bad, those nuances really come out. This always makes for an undoubtedly great performance from Hardy, who has managed to be a likable bad guy (in Mad Max: Fury Road), a two-faced bad guy (in The Revenant), or a guy you think is decently good until — gasp! — he turns out to be pretty bad (in Legend). If Hardy's career is fifty shades of bad boy, I don't want him to ever play a good guy again.

Venom is slated for an October 2018 release, so you'll just have to bide your time envisioning what Hardy will bring to the role of Venom in the meantime.