Venom 2’s Andy Serkis Explains How Gollum Helped Let There Be Carnage

Gollum in Lord of the Rings

Andy Serkis has had a fascinating career, both behind and in front of the camera. Of course, you might not be able to recognize some of his most iconic roles, as they’re often brought to life via motion capture. Gollum is his most synonymous character, and it turns out that the Lord of the Rings creature actually helped factor into his direction of Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Rather than acting a role in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Andy Serkis is actually taking on the mantle of director from Ruben Fleischer. Given his extensive emotion capture work, Serkis seemed like the perfect filmmaker to bring symbiotes like Venom and Carnage to life on the big screen. And he recently explained how Gollum other roles contributed into the upcoming comic book sequel, saying:

I’ve spent a considerable amount of my life playing a character with two sides to his personality and there’s common ground there. The digital characters have got to seriously act. They’ve got to be totally believable. I wanted to find a physical vocabulary for Carnage that was entirely different to Venom. Everything’s always underpinned by reality and the truth. I think it’s the perfect movie in a way, because it’s very celebratory of what cinema can do.

Suddenly I’m even more excited for Venom: Let There Be Carnage to arrive in theaters. Because while the sequel will bring larger than life symbiotes to audiences, it’s clear that Andy Serkis is focused on making them as realistic as possible. Sounds like the visual effects artists have quite the job to do.

Andy Serkis’ comments accompany Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s new trailer on Apple TV, where the filmmaker-actor spoke about the process of crafting the upcoming sequel. That’s when Gollum ultimately came up, although that’s far from the only motion capture character that Serkis has brought to life throughout his long career. Some others include Caesar in the Planet of the Apes franchise, as well as Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars.

And from the limited footage of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, it certainly seems like Andy Serkis is succeeding in his goals for the film’s visual language. The newest trailer gave us way more footage of Woody Harrelson’s Carnage, who looks so terrifying that even Venom doesn’t want to get into a fight. As a reminder, you can check out that clip below.

Luckily for moviegoing audiences, our various questions about Venom: Let There Be Carnage will presumably be answered this coming September when the sequel hits theaters. Fans are eager to dive back into that weird corner of the comic book universe, especially with Tom Hardy’s dual roles. And this time Venom has an antagonist that looks arguably more powerful than him.

Fans have also been wondering if/when Tom Holland’s Spider-Man might finally crossover with Venom on the big screen. Sony is creating a shared universe full of characters connected to Spider-Man lore, but without actually having Peter Parker present.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is currently expected to arrive in theaters September 24th. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.