Andy Serkis on his love of directing, working with Tom Hardy, and being creative

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. He steps into the director’s chair for the Marvel film Venom: Let There Be Carnage, a sequel to the 2018 blockbuster helmed by Ruben Fleischer Serkis, whose previous directing credits include Breathe, starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, and Jungle Book re-telling Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle, didn’t have his eye on directing a superhero blockbuster until he got a call from the film’s star, Tom Hardy “I was working on something else, I was developing something to shoot, and out of the blue came this call from Tom and he just said, ‘Andy, I want to throw your hat in the ring to direct Venom’,” he recalls. “I’ve always wanted to work with Tom and we’d talked around other projects, as director and actor and also acting together, so it was really wonderful to finally get to work together.” The film sees Hardy reprise his role as journalist Eddie Brock, who is still living with the symbiote Venom inside him. “I’ve never done anything like that before,” Serkis admits, “so it was a challenge at first but, the way it was written and the way the story was crafted, and where it sat in terms of the evolution of the relationship with Eddie and Venom, and also the introduction of such a main new character Carnage, allowed for a lot of exploration as if it were almost a film in its own right. “The world of graphic storytelling is something I’ve been interested in and obviously creating characters of these kinds, working with technology which allows you to bring to life, meant I felt very at home.” And as a fan, that must surely means he wants what scores of Marvel fans want – the chance to see Venom and Spider-Man together on the big screen?