Venom 3: Andy Serkis explains why he’s not directing sequel

Andy Serkis has opened up about why he hasn’t returned to direct Venom 3 after his work on Let There Be Carnage.

Serkis is best known for his motion-capture performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes movies, as well as starring as Snoke and Kino Loy in Star Wars and Alfred in Robert Pattinson’s The Batman.

However, he’s also stepped behind the camera as the director of three movies: Breathe, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the second installment of Tom Hardy’s symbiote franchise.

Serkis will not be returning to direct Venom 3, and now he’s explained why.

Andy Serkis explains why he’s not directing Venom 3

Venom 3, which doesn’t have a full title right now (it should be called V3NOM, really), will be directed by Kelly Marcel, who’s written the past two films.

During an appearance on The Playlist’s The Rogue Ones podcast, Serkis spoke about his decision to leave the franchise.

“I felt like I was the custodian of Venom at a really interesting time and I really loved my time on it,” he said.

“But, yeah, the other projects that I’d already sort of had lined up – I had to get back to them, because they take so long to bring into the world.”

He also told Slash Film that he had a “ball doing Venom 2”, and Hardy remains a “good friend.”

“I’ve got so many projects that I was just about to [work on], like Animal Farm for instance. We were just about to go into production with that, and then we delayed as Venom came up,” he continued.

“I really have to be very on top of the ones that I’ve been building to do for such a long time. But I’m really delighted that Kelly’s doing that. She’s so in control of that material with Tom. The pair of them are such a great team to work with. I’m really excited to see what they’re going to come up with.”

For more information on Venom 3, click here.