Tom Hardy says farewell to the alien symbiote at NYCC's 'Venom: The Last Dance' panel

'It's been one of the best things I've ever done in my life, so it'll be sad to see him go.'

That lovable brains-and-chocolate-eating symbiote known as Venom was loose at the Javits Center this past weekend for New York Comic Con, in anticipation of the release of Sony's "Venom: The Last Dance" on Friday (Oct. 25).  

The highlight of the Sony Pictures Panel for Friday evening on the Empire Stage was "Venom 3," one of the major projects that the studio packed up to share, with twisted new footage shown to the attending audience after the entertaining chat session.

Joining star and co-screenwriter Tom Hardy (Eddie Brock) onstage were director Kelly Marcel and co-stars Juno Temple (Dr. Payne) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Orwell Taylor). The gruesome fun began with Hardy describing what it's been like going down the long road with this rowdy alien parasite character.

"It's been seven years this day," the British actor told the packed crowd. "It's like I started the day seven years ago and now it's nighttime. It's time to go to sleep. I've absolutely loved playing Eddie and Venom and other people that you don't know. It's been one of the best things I've ever done in my life, so it'll be sad to see him go."

Hardy took on additional duties for this final installmentl, which features Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, and he was asked to describe his process in crafting the story alongside his longtime friend, director Kelly Marcel.

"Well, I come up with these fantastic ideas, like literally," Hardy joked. "I've had five already just since I started talking, and I'm still having them right now. What I'll do is talk at Kelly and I'll keep talking until Kelly says, 'That's enough.' Then I'm like, 'Yeah she's got it all there.' And then Kelly goes away and comes back with things I've never thought of, but it's all formatted perfectly, and I pat myself on the back."

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Being a creative partner behind the scenes posed a new set of challenges for the London-born actor, who's best known for "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Mad Max: Fury Road."

"Acting for me is kind of a mimetic art, and that's a craft in itself," he noted. “But storytelling is super important from a nucleus point of view for many different reasons. My aperture was through acting and behind the supposed page. I think when you have an IP or character as wonderful and as deliciously wicked as Venom, and you have such a huge talent like in my partner here, the opportunity to play and deepen the challenges you can have as an actor, against the canon and the huge amount of lore there is within the comic books, all the way from Todd McFarlane through to Donny [Cates] and Ryan [Stegman]. You have this wonderful base to play but also challenge yourself on the screen, too. So it's immersive, and I revel more in playing the character because I'm deep in the fibers of it."

Marcel's journey with the symbiote began years ago as the co-screenwriter of 2018's "Venom" and and the sole screenwriter of 2021’s "Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage."

"We find them where we left them at the end of 'Venom 2,'" Marcel explained regarding the plot. "They've been exposed to the outside world because of the massive fight in the cathedral. And so now they're fugitives and they're on the run, so 'The Last Dance' is kind of a road trip movie as they're chased by people from our world, but also people from another world. And the longer they stay together, the more they realize that their being together is putting the whole world in jeopardy."

This was Marcel's first directorial gig, and she invested a tremendous amount of creative sweat in bringing the "Venom" trilogy to a satisfying conclusion.

"I've been with Tom for those seven years on this journey, so these films mean everything to us," she adds. "I was really grateful to Sony for giving me the opportunity to see this one through from inception to the very end, especially as the last in the trilogy. It was a beautiful experience, and I also hope that it opens doors for female directors directing male-led action movies.

"This is the last Venom movie. We always saw this as three pictures and wanted to tell Eddie and Venom's story in three movies, and the arc for Venom and Eddie closes here. But, as you know, there are lots of symbiote stories in the canon, so there's lots of places to go, and maybe there are a few easter eggs in here that might start that journey off."

"Venom: The Last Dance" emerges in theaters on Oct. 25.