10 Genius Blockbuster Movie Subversions
5. Venom
What You Thought
When Tom Hardy signed on to play Eddie Brock in 2018's Venom, the surprise felt online was palpable. What more did Hardy have to give to the world of comic book heroes? It soon followed that he had signed on to play the Symbiote as his son was a huge Venom fan. As reasons go, you usually want to hear that he 'couldn't turn down a script of this quality'...
Fans had been burnt by a Sony Spider-Man feature before (Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, both flattering to deceive) and expected the worst, especially after the lacklustre response to the trailers.
What It Actually Was
Against all the odds, Venom grossed over $800 million across the globe and took the character back into the world of the early 2000's where crude jokes and moustache twiddling adversaries reigned supreme.
The plot and Michelle William's criminal underuse, threatened to take some shine off the feat but Hardy's charm and chemistry between himself and... erm... himself (he voiced Venom, too) made this one of the biggest wins in Sony's recent catalogue.