Director Kelly Marcel thinks that Venom: The Last Dance is a lot of things, as she closes off the final chapter in the trilogy. “The Venom trilogy is a classic rom-com, really,” Marcel says, laughing. “Eddie Brock and Venom meet in the first film. In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, they’ve got the seven year itch and they break up. Now, as we conclude their story, they have finally learned to live with each other, they’ve finally reached symbiosis, but will they be able to stay together?”

Marcel finally helms the film as a director, after being involved with the last two Venom films as a co-writer, executive producer for Venom, and producer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage. She’s excited to get back into the world of Venom and her longtime collaboration with Tom Hardy, who co-wrote the film and plays both Eddie and Venom. “Tom and I have a really good language with each other,” Marcel says. “He understands my writing, and I know how to build characters for him that he enjoys playing. For The Last Dance, we spent a week in a hotel in London just bashing out the story from morning ’til morning. Tom and I agreed that this movie needs to be the biggest, most amped up Venom of them all, and we’re lucky the studio trusts us to make it in the way that we see it and feel it.”

Along with the continuation of the saga is the evolution of Eddie and Venom as characters and the relationship between them. “Eddie Brock is a pretty selfish guy when you first meet him in Venom,” says Marcel. “He destroys his relationship by lying to his fiancée and ending her career. He’s a journalist who enjoys his own face and fame, and Venom completely destroys all of that and strips him down to his basic self. In Venom: The Last Dance, Eddie is older and wiser, and he’s learned so much more patience and tolerance. He’s learned how to really love someone.”

When writing Venom: the Last Dance both Marcel and Hardy had an ear out for what fans love about the films, and what made it work for the previous two movies. “We’re very inspired by the comics, and we wanted to listen to the fans and see where they want this story to go next,” Marcel says. “But we knew that we were going to be concluding this trilogy, and we wanted to make it emotional. We wanted to take Venom and Eddie’s relationship to the next level.”

Don’t miss the end of a saga as Venom: The Last Dance arrives in Philippine cinemas on October 23. Tickets available now! Check out the ticketing sites of your local cinemas to reserve seats.

Watch the final trailer below: