Venom's Tom Hardy in It for the Long Haul

When Venom swings into theaters this October, it will mark the first time we see Tom Hardy become the anti-hero. If things go according to plan—i.e. becoming a smash hit at the box office—it definitely won’t be the last time Hardy becomes Venom.

That’s because Hardy has signed up for a total of four Venom movies. The actor revealed the news a recent interview, confirming he is onboard for the so-called Venom-verse for the long run if the movie ends up being a hit.

Here’s exactly what Tom Hardy said about his contract:

We’ve signed up for three of them. So it’s very much an open case. We’ll see what people’s responses are to it. I think it’s an awesome character. I love playing both of them. It’s an amuse-bouche, and for Sony, it’s the Venom-verse launched in isolation, as it were. We all prepped for it to be a standalone universe. So whatever Sony want to attach to it at a later date, it’s a fulcrum piece. But let’s see what happens when it lands.

Usually when actors sign up for roles like this, it’s usually for multiple projects. It ensures the original cast is guaranteed to return for future sequels. And seeing as Sony is putting lots of resources to build up its own Marvel universe based on all of the Spider-Man characters it owns, it wants to nail down pillars that will lead this new set of movies. Tom Holland as Spider-Man is one of them and now Tom Hardy as Venom could be its second pillar.

It remains to be seen if Venom can become the hit franchise Sony hopes it will be. The new interpretation of the character seems to be more closely tied to the comic book version, which should excite fans, but if the planned PG-13 rating is any indication, it may not completely explore the character’s darker tendencies.

We’ll see how things turn out when Venom opens October 5.