‘Venom’ Carnage after-credits scene, explained

Marvel
Comics

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the
after-credits scene of “Venom.”

• The “Venom” after-credits scene features actor Woody
  Harrelson as the serial killer Cletus Kasady, who in the comic
  books becomes the Spider-Man/Venom foe, Carnage.
• In the comics, the Carnage symbiote is an offspring of Venom
  that bonds to Kasady in prison.
• In the scene, Brock visits Kasady in prison, who vows
  “there’s gonna be carnage” when he escapes.
• With “Venom” a box-office hit, there’s bound to be a sequel —
  and more Carnage.

Comic book readers were probably not surprised to discover who
the “Venom” after-credits scene introduces to the Sony Spider-Man
expanded universe: Cletus Kasady, the serial killer who becomes
the symbiotic monster and one of Spider-Man’s most popular foes,
Carnage.

But even fans were likely taken aback by who portrayed the
character in the scene: none other than Woody Harrelson, complete
with a curly red wig. The scene features journalist Eddie Brock,
played by Tom Hardy, visiting a prison to interview Kasady. When
Brock arrives, Kasady has written “Welcome Eddie” in his own
blood on the wall, and proclaims that when he escapes, “there’s
gonna be carnage.”

For non-comic book readers, the scene — like many world-building
after-credits scenes in superhero films today — may have been a
tad confusing. Who is this guy and why should casual moviegoers
care?

In the comics, Carnage is an alien symbiote (or parasite) that is
the offspring of Venom. When Venom bonds with Brock, he is in
prison along with his cellmate, Kasady. The Carnage symbiote
bonds with Kasady after Venom/Brock escape prison, setting up the
long-running conflict between Venom and Carnage, in which
Spider-Man has regularly been caught.

Since Kasady is a cold-blooded murderer, Carnage is more vicious
than Venom, and hence doesn’t have some of the barriers that
Venom has shown in the comics and the movie. 

In an interview with IGN, “Venom” director
Ruben Fleischer said that the movie slightly deviates away
from Carnage’s comic-book origin story so that Brock/Venom could
be developed as an anti-hero that the audience roots for before
introducing Carnage.

“I don’t think we wanted Eddie to go to jail at the end of
our movie,” Fleischer said. “That would’ve been a bit of a
bummer. But we did want to have them in jail cell proximity and
so we left the door open for how Venom can spawn Carnage and how
Cletus might someday become that character.”

The “Venom” movie alludes to the idea that there are
hundreds more symbiotes from their home planet, and that we only
saw a sliver of them. Whether a sequel sticks to the idea that
Carnage is an offspring of Venom or an entirely separate symbiote
remains to be seen.

Fleischer also said that the ambition “was to show that
there are legs for the franchise in that a fan favorite let alone
played by Woody Harrelson would be something we could look
forward to in the future.”

“Venom” is a surprise box-office hit, smashing
expectations in its opening weekend with $80 million — the
biggest October opening of all time. It’s also made over $225
million worldwide. With a production budget of $100 million, it’s
safe to say that there will be a sequel to “Venom.”

That means more Carnage.