Sony’s Animated VENOM Movie Reportedly Targeting R Rating, Could Embrace Full Symbiote Carnage
Sony Pictures is gearing up to bring the Lethal Protector back to the big screen, but this time in animated form and a whole lot more vicious.
A new report claims that the studio’s upcoming Venom movie won’t follow the same family-friendly template as the Spider-Verse films and could instead aim straight for an R rating. If that sticks, we might see the symbiote unleashed without the usual restraints.
The animated side of Sony’s Spider-Man universe has been firing on all cylinders thanks to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Both films crushed it critically and commercially, and plenty of fans rank them among the best comic book movies ever made.
Now everyone is waiting to see how the trilogy wraps up with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Beyond that, Sony already has Spider-Gwen and Spider-Punk spin-offs in development, so the animated universe isn’t slowing down.
The animated Venom project is in the works from Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the directing duo behind Final Destination: Bloodlines. That suggests Sony isn’t looking to make a Saturday morning cartoon.
According to insider Daniel Richtman, the film is targeting an R rating. If that’s true, it’s a pretty gutsy call. R-rated animated series like Invincible and Rick & Morty have proven there’s an audience for adult animation.
But on the theatrical side, that’s still largely uncharted territory, especially for a major comic book character. On the flip side, this approach would give Lipovsky and Stein the freedom to lean into the horror roots and body horror chaos that define Venom in the comics.
The live-action Venom trilogy starring Tom Hardy wasn’t that good, but it brought in serious money for Sony, though each entry earned less than the one before.
2018’s Venom took heat for sidelining Spider-Man in the anti-hero’s origin story. Venom: Let There Be Carnage ramped things up with Cletus Kasady, but its PG-13 rating kept the carnage relatively tame. 2024’s Venom: The Last Dance delivered a stupid fun popcorn experience, yet it still held back when it came to violence.
Hardy appeared to close the book on Eddie Brock with The Last Dance, though he’s said to be involved in this animated project as a producer.
Sony’s larger Spider-Man universe has had a rocky stretch. After the underwhelming performance of Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter, several movie plans were reportedly put on ice.
At one point, the studio was said to be considering a shift toward Flash Thompson as Venom’s next host. In Venom: The Last Dance, a soldier named Thompson loses his legs to a Xenophage, setting up a possible path toward the Agent Venom storyline.
The idea was that a surviving piece of the symbiote would bond with him before eventually reconnecting with Eddie to face Knull, the looming big bad of Sony’s Spider-Man universe. For now, that roadmap appears to be paused.
An R-rated animated Venom could be the reset button Sony needs. It would separate itself from the colorful Spider-Verse aesthetic and carve out its own identity rooted in horror and chaos.
Venom first slithered onto the page in Amazing Spider-Man #300 back in 1988, and the character has always thrived in darker corners of the Marvel Universe. Letting that side shine on screen feels long overdue.
If Sony really commits to this direction, we could finally see the Lethal Protector in his most unhinged, monstrous form. For fans who’ve wanted a Venom movie that doesn’t pull its punches, this might be the one.