Venom 3 Trailer Reveals a New Marvel Villain: Who Is Knull?

A venomized horse. Rhys Ifans as a guitar playing hippie. Tom Hardy‘s Eddie and Venom in Vegas. The latest trailer for Venom: The Last Dance features several over the top elements. But the most compelling may be the white-haired figure glimpsed throughout the clip, a figure sitting on a throne.

That, is Knull — God of the Abyss, God of the Symbiotes. Check out the trailer below:

Knull only lasted a few years in the pages of Marvel Comics, but he had an immediate impact. Created by writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman, Knull debuted in 2018’s Venom #3 as a powerful figure who could control the symbiote, overriding even the will of Eddie Brock. Yet, while new to readers, Knull has a history that goes back millennia, to before the Marvel Universe as we know it even exists.

As the Celestials did their work to recreate the universe, they encountered a dark, powerful creature. After that creature beheaded one of the Celestials, the others banded together to sentence it to a distant, silent planet. Instead of destroying the evil, the planet only helped it grow, spreading itself into gooey black entities that could take possession of their hosts. On that planet, the evil took the name Knull, and sent its children out to destroy the work of the Celestials and unmake the Universe.

That project came to head in the King in Black crossover from 2021. Knull’s symbiotes begin to cover the cosmos, creating venomized versions of some of Marvel’s greatest heroes, including Cyclops of the X-Men, the Thing of the Fantastic Four, and Ms. Marvel. But thanks to his special bond with his symbiote, Eddie and Venom are able to break Knull’s hold, killing Knull and freeing the universe from the threat.

Yes, you read that right. Knull as a character lasted just a few years, and rarely appeared outside of storylines not from his creators Cates and Stegman. So why in the world does Venom: The Last Dance treat Knull like such a big deal?

Part of the answer to that question goes back to the very nature of the Sony Spidey-less Villain universe. Unless Sony wants to try another Z-list good guy like Madame Web, they have to make Spider-Man’s enemies into protagonists, and that means that they have to pit these creatures against even bigger bads. With Carnage already out of the way and Spider-Man off the table, Knull is easily the biggest bad left.

But even beyond that practical, if cynical, reasoning, Knull allows The Last Dance writer and director Kelly Marcel the chance to give the people what they want from these films: ridiculous, over-the-top moments and lots of romantic bickering between Eddie and Venom.

The trailers shows that The Last Dance deals with Knull finding Venom on Earth and sending hordes of symbiotes to take him. The more symbiotes that arrive, the more opportunities there are for crazy combinations, such as the aforementioned venomized horse, to say nothing of the weird monsters that Venom and Eddie fight.

In short, to bring viewers the strangeness they want, Venom: The Last Dance must use Knull, the strangest thing of all.

Venom: The Last Dance attacks theaters on Oct. 25.