Sony’s “dark” comic universe is going to kick off with Venom, a long-promised R-rated adaptation of the popular comic antihero who was first introduced in “Amazing Spider-Man” #298. It has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA, if the AMC listings are to be believed.

Director Ruben Fleischer has publicly stated that, in the case of a PG-13, he pushed the limits of the gore and violence. What he’s essentially saying is that Sony hasn’t neutered his movie much like they did that of Sylvain White’s Slender Man. Truth or not, all that matters is what’s on the screen come October 5th. An “R” is all but an arbitrary rating offered by the MPAA’s own bias. It’s possible that Venom has all the bells and whistles us fans have been promised, and still was able to score a much more audience (and box office) friendly PG-13. As a fan, I’ve got skeptical eyes, but it’s hard to complain when one of the coolest comic characters ever is getting his own film – with Tom-fuckin’-Hardy starring nonetheless. Oh, and the runtime is an awesome 1 hr 52 minutes.

As for the reason why the studio wanted a PG-13 rating, we’ve previously discussed it here, but essentially it’s the start of a new universe that would include Morbius, Silk, Jackpot, and Nightwatch. With Venom tracking around $60M for its opening weekend, it seems more and more likely that we’ll not only get to see all of the aforementioned characters, but also Carnage and then maybe…SPIDER-MAN?