9 Big Predictions About Sony’s Spider-Man Universe

9. Venom Will Adapt The Lethal Protector Storyline

Rumours should always be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, but here's one you can file under 'entirely plausible'.

The folks at OmegaUnderground recently reported that Tom Hardy's Venom will be based on the Lethal Protector storyline, a six-issue Marvel Comics series which dates back to 1993, and this would be the ideal arc to draw from.

It was a landmark story for Venom as it saw him transition from all-out villain to anti-hero after striking up a deal with Spider-Man, and later teaming up with Marvel's web-slinger to take down a common threat.

Now, streamlining and surgery would be needed to remove any traces of Spidey from the source material, but a loose, Peter Parker-free adaptation should work just fine.

The whole point of the arc is Eddie Brock finding redemption, and he doesn't necessarily need Spider-Man for that. This would still make Venom an origin film of sorts, though not in the traditional sense.

This is the perfect basis for the film as most cinemagoers with little to no experience of the comics will only know the character from his poorly-received screen debut in Spider-Man 3. Revealing how he shifted from darkness to anti-heroism would effectively give them a crash course in all things symbiotic.