Venom: Did you spot THESE hidden Easter eggs in the Venom movie?

Marvel, Sony, and Warner Bros have been putting their own spin on comic books over the last decade.

And while they may take their inspiration from the pages, what winds up on screens is often a far cry from their source material.

But these comic book moviemakers know they need to keep their core fanbase happy, those die-hard fans who know the ins and outs of each edition.

As a result, Easter eggs are often slipped into the films for only the keenest-eyed fans to spot.

Did you spot these hidden Easter eggs in Venom?

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Venom

Cletus Kasady aka Carnage

Moviegoers who stuck around long enough to see the mid-credit scene were treated to an Easter egg and a teaser all in one.

The scene showed Woody Harrelson, ginger-haired and clearly psychopathic, in a cell at San Quentin prison.

Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock arrives to conduct an interview with the notorious serial killer.

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When Brock approaches, Kasady says: “When I get out of here, and I will, there’s gonna be carnage.”

The Easter egg in this scene is the character himself, Cletus Kasady.

In the Marvel comics, Kasady shares a cell with Brock in prison, and when Brock’s symbiote comes to break him out of jail, a bit of symbiote is left behind to bond with Kasady.

Kasady turns into Carnage, an even more unhinged and dangerous creature than the serial killer himself.

The teaser is, of course, the hint at a sequel for Venom, which Harrelson himself (perhaps accidentally) confirmed months ago during an interview with Collider.

Carnage is likely to be the main villain in Venom 2, going up against Venom and, if the movie moves closer to its source material, some version of Spider-Man too.

The Daily Globe

What is almost a throwaway line at the beginning of the movie is actually a huge Easter egg and comic book fans would have spotted it immediately.

During an intimate dinner, Brock and his fiancee Anne (Michelle Williams) are discussing his upcoming interview with enigmatic inventor Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed).

Anne warns him against provoking Drake, and says they don’t want “a repeat of the Daily Globe incident.”

The reference goes back to Brock’s life previously in New York City, and ties into the Spider-Man movies in which Spidey exposes Brock’s source for a story as a fraud, thus ending his career in shame.

The comics see Venom turn into a fully fledged villain (at least at first), but the movie turns Brock into a sympathetic figure, with Anne describing how Brock was run out of New York City.

Brock defends himself, saying he moved to San Francisco for her, but it’s clear the memory still hurts, and Brock’s desire to resurrect his career as an investigative journalist ends up costing him dearly.

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Stan Lee

While not strictly an Easter egg, Stan Lee’s cameos are a thing of wonder unto themselves.

In Venom, Lee appears at the end walking a small dog.

He gives Brock some advice on not giving up on love, while the Venom voice in Brock’s head comments on how tasty the dog looks.

The cameo is one of many Lee has done over his career – he has also filmed cameos for Captain Marvel, Avengers 4, Spider-Man Far From Home and X-Men Dark Phoenix.

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John Jameson

Perhaps the best-hidden Easter egg is the brief inclusion of Marvel cult-favourite Colonel John Jameson.

The Life Foundation’s first foray into space ends in a crash landing, and the pilot who dies in the wreck is referred to as Jameson.

Venom director Ruben Fleischer confirmed in an interview with IGN he indeed meant this character to be John Jameson.

The astronaut first appeared in 1963’s The Amazing Spider-Man #1 and has since popped up throughout Marvel’s comics and, indeed, movies.

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She-Venom

One divisive scene in Venom saw Eddie Brock kissing a female Venom, allowing the symbiote to pass from Anne back into Brock’s body.

The symbiote managed to bond with Anne without instantly killing her, and the brief appearance of the well-loved She-Venom may not be an Easter-egg alone.

Fleischer said the character of She-Venom “would be fun to explore within the body of a Venom movie and then there’s also the possibility of, who knows, a She-Venom standalone movie”.

Whether or not this comes to fruition depends quite heavily on the success of Venom itself, commercially and critically.

Venom is out in UK cinemas now. Venom is out in USA cinemas on October 5, 2018.