The First Venom Teaser with Tom Hardy Has Arrived and the Internet Is Confused

At long last, fans are getting a first glimpse of Tom Hardy in the new teaser trailer for Venom. 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, Bane in The Dark Knight and Alfie Solomons in Peaky Blinders, 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.