An unused animatronic for Venom in Sony’s Spider-Man 3 has resurfaced, highlighting the differences between superhero movies then and now.

Summary

An unused Venom animatronic from Spider-Man 3 has resurfaced online, highlighting the differences between pre-2010 superhero movies and modern Hollywood. The animatronic Venom head showcases the practical effects used in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, emphasizing how superhero movies have shifted towards overreliance on CGI. The main difference between Venom in Spider-Man 3 and the standalone Venom movie is the absence of Spider-Man, changing the dynamic and storyline of the titular character beyond that of Marvel Comics and other iterations.

An unused Venom animatronic from Spider-Man 3 has resurfaced online, highlighting the key differences between superhero movies in modern Hollywood and those pre-2010. Spider-Man 3 culminated Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, a series of movies that is often regarded as one of the first great superhero franchises. Despite the issues found in Spider-Man 3, the film and its predecessors were instrumental in popularizing superhero cinema. Spider-Man 3’s inclusion of Venom among other Marvel Comics aided this, even leading to a Venom standalone trilogy beginning in 2018 with Venom 3’s 2024 release date rounding out the character’s solo journey.

Going back to 2007 though, an unused Venom animatronic from Spider-Man 3 has been highlighted on X – formerly Twitter – by Marvel Facts. The video highlights a robotic Venom head that was initially intended for use in Spider-Man 3. The animatronic Venom head evidences the true wonder of practical effects, something Sam Raimi utilized to great impact in his Spider-Man trilogy. Aside from highlighting the benefit of practical special effects, the video of Venom’s animatronic from Spider-Man 3 also brings to light how starkly different superhero movies of modern cinema are in comparison to those from only a decade or so ago.

Related: Why Tom Hardy’s Venom Is Not In The MCU

How Spider-Man 3 & Sony’s Venom Are Most Different

The biggest difference between modern superhero movies and those of the past – emblemized by the difference between Venom and Spider-Man 3 – is the overreliance on CGI. 2018’s Venom introduced a full CGI model for Venom that was motion-captured by Tom Hardy. At no point in 2018’s Venom, nor its sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is there a practical creation of the titular antihero. This is made even more obvious by the animatronic from Spider-Man 3, which proves how different the two characters – and superhero cinema as a whole – have become.

Concerning the character itself, Venom’s main difference in Spider-Man 3 comes from his connection to Spider-Man. Like Marvel Comics, Venom is a primary antagonist of Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3, spawning from the latter’s connection to the symbiote. In Venom, and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe overall, Spider-Man is nowhere to be seen. This marks a significant difference between Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock/Venom from most incarnations of the popular Spider-Man antihero, including the one found in Spider-Man 3.

Source: Marvel Facts