--- title: Venom Teaser Featuring Tom Hardy Is Missing the Villain description: The first teaser trailer for the 'Venom' movie starring Tom Hardy as the titular character is here — and people have very strong reactions. canonical: https://time.com/5139661/venom-tom-hardy-teaser/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-08T17:46:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:27.099Z og:title: The First Taste of Tom Hardy's 'Venom' Is Missing One Thing og:description: The teaser doesn't show the villain, to the internet's confusion og:url: https://time.com/5139661/venom-tom-hardy-teaser/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7db8b3f1a39d534/698926bf929fad4bcabef86f/tom-hardy-taboo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2728 og:image:height: 1535 og:image:alt: Premiere Of FX's "Taboo" - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The First Taste of Tom Hardy's 'Venom' Is Missing One Thing twitter:description: The teaser doesn't show the villain, to the internet's confusion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7db8b3f1a39d534/698926bf929fad4bcabef86f/tom-hardy-taboo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The First _Venom_ Teaser with Tom Hardy Has Arrived and the Internet Is Confused > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 8, 2018 5:46 PM UTC  Actor Tom Hardy attends the premiere of "Taboo" at DGA Theater on January 9, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Actor Tom Hardy attends the premiere of "Taboo" at DGA Theater on January 9, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 8, 2018 5:46 PM UTC At long last, fans are getting a first glimpse of Tom Hardy in the [new teaser trailer for _Venom_](http://time.com/4786608/venom-sony-tom-hardy-spider-man/). The comic book adaptation — based on the Marvel universe villain and Spider-Man adversary — has had a long road to the big screen as a standalone movie. The role, in which regular guy Eddie Brock is rendered villainous after being invaded by an evil alien “symbiote,” was played by Topher Grace in _Spider-Man 3_ in 2007\. But eventually, Hardy was tapped to play the lead in the Ruben Fleischer-directed spinoff. _Venom_ isn’t out until Oct. 5, 2018, and filming just wrapped a few weeks ago. But fans are pointing out that the titular Venom, identifiable by his sinister alien form, rows of sharp teeth and long tongue, is nowhere to be seen in the teaser visuals. Then again, maybe that’s what a teaser is for: just to offer the tiniest early taste. We do see Hardy undergoing what looks like a painful medical transformation, accompanied by a voiceover about the “demons” within. The movie costars Riz Ahmed and Michelle Williams alongside Hardy. Hardy is no stranger to stories in this vein; as Mad Max in [_Mad Max: Fury Road_](http://www.thedrive.com/a-list/2364/15-surprising-facts-about-the-making-of-oscar-winner-mad-max-fury-road), Bane in [_The Dark Knight_](http://time.com/money/4367140/money-movies-secret-message-deeper-meaning/item/the-dark-knight-trilogy/) and Alfie Solomons in [_Peaky Blinders_](http://time.com/4306255/peaky-blinders-trailer-season-3/), he’s got a resumé full of tough characters with costume features that obscure the bulk of their faces. Here’s what the Twitterverse has to say about Venom’s conspicuous absence from the _Venom_ teaser. > [](https://twitter.com/wyshynski/status/961614981379903488) > [](https://twitter.com/yahboyantman/status/961614777293225984) > [](https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/961613120316715008) > [](https://twitter.com/joshkelliott/status/961603146509377537) > [](https://twitter.com/HailHydra1237/status/961611294636900352) > [](https://twitter.com/nuffsaidNY/status/961617413778309120) > [](https://twitter.com/MrGojira95/status/961617170055811072) > [](https://twitter.com/Mr%5FiKeepitreal/status/961627659838066689) > [](https://twitter.com/MANvsGAME/status/961626087024283648) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5139661/venom-tom-hardy-teaser/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5139661/venom-tom-hardy-teaser/"},"headline":"The First Venom Teaser with Tom Hardy Has Arrived and the Internet Is Confused","datePublished":"2018-02-08T17:46:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:27.099Z","description":"The first teaser trailer for the 'Venom' movie starring Tom Hardy as the titular character is here — and people have very strong reactions.","url":"https://time.com/5139661/venom-tom-hardy-teaser/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Tom Hardy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7db8b3f1a39d534/698926bf929fad4bcabef86f/tom-hardy-taboo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc7db8b3f1a39d534/698926bf929fad4bcabef86f/tom-hardy-taboo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Premiere Of FX's \"Taboo\" - Arrivals","caption":"Premiere Of FX's \"Taboo\" - Arrivals","creditText":"Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5139661/venom-tom-hardy-teaser/","name":"The First Venom Teaser with Tom Hardy Has Arrived and the Internet Is Confused"}}]}] ```