'Venom' Movie Rumors: Is Riz Ahmed Dr. Carlton Drake in Tom Hardy Starrer?

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Riz Ahmed's casting on the "Venom" movie starring Tom Hardy originally sparked rumors that he's playing the serial killer Cletus Kasady/Carnage. A recent photo from the set, however, shows that the actor might not be playing the role everyone thought. Is Ahmed's role that of Dr. Carlton Drake?

A photo of Ahmed in full costume appeared on Twitter during the filming of "Venom" before Christmas day. The captioned identified his character as Dr. Drake, but Marvel hasn't confirmed Ahmed's actual role.

Dr. Drake owns the Life Foundation, whose character first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" comics in 1988. He leads a group of survivalists who track down Hardy's Eddie Brock/Venom.

The Life Foundation wants to use Venom's symbiote to create spawns. The symbiote is a gooey sentient being with immeasurable power and it feeds on its host, such as Venom.

Dr. Drake is also an important character in the comics' issue of "Lethal Protector." Thus, Ahmed's role makes sense since Hardy confirmed that his superhero film will actually take points from this story.

This is what happens when they walk out of the wrong door... side and behind view.



Dr. Drake from #Venom, in costume. pic.twitter.com/e5wNiOqUKL — Atlanta Filming (@AtlantaFilming) December 22, 2017

In August, Marvel announced that Ahmed will play a "popular Marvel Comics character" and fans assumed he fitted the role of Carnage, who is also a symbiote. In the comics, Venom bonds with Carnage and later absorbs his symbiote to become a more powerful villain in the world of Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, a producer on "Venom" acknowledged Hardy's performance. Matthew Tolmach remarked that the actor is "masterclass."

"Watching him act every day, he's such a risk taker and he loved this character," Tolmach said. "We found someone who just believed in this character entirely and yet every day pushes it to a place that us mere mortals would never expect it to go."

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"Venom" has an October 2018 theater date. The movie also stars Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate and Woody Harrelson.