Tom Hardy reveals His Slime-Monster Look in the New Venom Trailer (and no one knows how to feel about it)

The trailer for Venom has dropped — or some might say “fallen” — and depending on who you ask, it’s either hot, a mess, or a perfect combination of the two.

In a palette of greys, blacks, and grey-blacks, the trailer paints a broad portrait of the newest superhero (supervillain, actually) to get his own Marvel movie. Summed up, the plot goes something like this: Tom Hardy plays a sexy journalist conducting a sexy investigation into the evil corporation that his sexy girlfriend (Michelle Williams) happens to work for, but somewhere along the way, he transforms into a vengeful slime monster with a tentacular tongue, who, some people on the internet have decided, is also strangely sexy.

Pulling off a good superhero look is tough, particularly when you’re going for a dark, brooding antihero look, and the reaction to the Venom trailer has been mixed. Some are excited to see Marvel go dark, vying with The Dark Knight for the title of grimmest superhero movie ever. Others have said the attempt at ominousness comes off instead as silly.

But perhaps the biggest — and strangest — reaction has been one of, uh, lust. Turns out, there’s a huge contingent of mostly women who find the mucilaginous, massive-tongued demon to be . . . strangely appealing. And no, it’s not Tom Hardy they’re into. They’re talking about the slimy, murderous creature who congeals overtop of Tom Hardy for a brief moment at the end of the trailer.

Perhaps Venom’s sex appeal should come as no surprise in year when a film about a woman falling in love with humanoid fish-man took home the Oscar for best picture. And maybe it says something about the #metoo era that women seem to be giving up on regular human men and focusing their lust on fantastical semi-humanoids. Whatever’s behind it, “hot for Venom” has probably been the most unified reaction to the trailer’s release.

So if you go see Venom when it comes out, you may find yourself sharing the theater with a diverse group. Hardcore comic book nerds, lustful Venom fangirls, and — a third contingent not yet mentioned — those who are just excited to see Jenny Slate (the indie comedian hero behind Obvious Child) in a massive blockbuster.

So while it maybe aiming at a niche group of Marvel fans, it turns out Venom just be the rarest of Hollywood beasts: a movie with something for everyone.