Venom: The Last Dance’s new trailer introduces Marvel’s darkest god

The newest trailer for Venom: The Last Dance gave us our first look at the film’s villain, and it’s not another of Venom’s children. In the final chapter of his titular trilogy, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) faces off against Knull, Lord of the Abyss and creator of all symbiotes.

If you’re a Marvel Comics fan, you already know why the sound of his name was enough to make the Venom Symbiote want to peel themselves off Eddie’s skin. If you don’t know who Knull is, worry not! I’m here to tell you everything you need to know about Marvel’s most terrifying deity and what his introduction could mean for Sony’s Spider-Man universe.

The tale of Marvel’s Knull

Knull is a relatively recent addition to the Marvel universe, fully debuting in 2018 within the pages of Donny Cates’ Venom. This is ironic, since Knull is one of the oldest beings in the Marvel Universe. Born from the primordial darkness sandwiched between each iteration of the cosmos (Marvel lore is wild), Knull is the embodiment of the void, and in classic dark god fashion, all he wants is to bask forever in the infinite blackness he spawned from.

Unfortunately for Knull, his eternal slumber ended abruptly when the deific Celestials began laying down the framework of the universe. As the god of nothing, Knull looked at things like color, warmth, and dreams, and said, “Yeah, I’m not about this.” So he did what any rational eldritch horror would do: create a living sword from his shadow and declare war on everything.

With the newly-forged All-Black, the Necrosword, Knull decapitated the first Celestial he saw, becoming the universe’s first murderer. Armed with the raw, cosmic power of the Celestial’s head, Knull brought an army of dark dragons to life, linked to him through an intricate hive mind. These dragons would become the first generation of Symbiotes, and Knull used them to drown galaxies in darkness and bring entire pantheons of gods to their knees.

After untold eons, Knull’s campaign came to a screeching halt when one of his dragons made its way to Earth in the Middle Ages. This dragon, Grendel by name, crossed paths with a young Thor and got a face full of Mjolnir for its troubles. The electricity from Thor’s blow rippled up the Symbiote hive mind, hitting Knull head-on and knocking the Lord of the Abyss into a coma.

Free from their tyrannical progenitor’s influence, the Symbiotes sealed Knull away within the core of his throne world, which they would name “Klyntar.” Despite the Symbiotes’ best attempts to erase any lingering trace of Knull from the universe, their efforts would ultimately be in vain.

S.H.I.E.L.D. eventually unearthed Grendel’s remains and used them to create a platoon of Symbiote-bonded super-soldiers. Grendel’s return kicked off a series of Symbiote-related events, culminating with Knull’s resurrection at the hands of Cletus Kasady. Knull launched an all-out symbiote invasion of Earth in the 2020/2021 King in Black crossover event, in which the Lord of the Abyss finally met his end at the hands of a divinely powered Eddie Brock.

Knull’s debut in Venom: The Last Dance could save Sony’s Spider-Verse… or destroy it

Knull is one of the most potent threats ever to menace the Marvel universe, and I’m honestly surprised he’s showing up in Venom 3. Hardy’s spent most of his tenure as Venom fighting other Symbiote hosts, and Venom 3‘s first few trailers made it look like that pattern could continue. If my earlier summation didn’t clarify it enough, Knull’s anything but “another Symbiote villain.”

With deific strength, a healing factor, and command over a legion of Symbiotes, Knull’s easily the most powerful villain to appear in Sony’s Spider-Verse. He fought gods and won countless times, and his ability to control Symbiote in the universe means he always has an intergalactic army at his beck and call. With that much power at his command, Knull could become the Big Bad the Sony Spider-Verse has needed for a while.

However, while I am excited to see what Kelly Marcel does with Knull in Venom 3, I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little worried. Knull was a slow-burn villain in the comics, giving readers plenty of time to stew in dread and morbid curiosity before the foretold “God of the Symbiotes” finally appeared. If there’s one thing a villain of Knull’s scale deserves, it’s a good amount of build-up, and the previous two Venom movies didn’t mention him at all. It’d be a shame to see the mystique and morbid majesty of Knull restricted to a single film, even if it is a series-ending threequel.

A tweet from Alec Perez of My Cosmic Circus implied Sony has big plans for Knull, so Venom 3 may not be the last time we see the God of the Symbiotes. We’ll have to wait until the movie comes out on October 25th to find out.