Production has already begun for Venom, and the question of how Tom Hardy will bring the powerful symbiote to life has finally been answered. It’s an important question, although most online commenters were more concerned that there would be no Spider-Man in Sony's first Marvel Universe movie.

The answer to the question came from the most unexpected source. During an interview with Yahoo Movies, Andy Serkis said that motion-capture performance could redefine what acting really means:

The time has come for people to understand that performance capture is a technology, not a genre of acting. Acting is acting, and the more actors – like Steve Zahn and Karin Konoval, who played Maurice in War for the Planet of the Apes – the more A-list actors that come on board, like Mark Rylance playing The BFG, or a lot of actors in the new Marvel films"¦Tom Hardy is playing a new character using performance capture. It all points up [the question], “What is the nature of acting?” And there’s no difference between acting wearing a costume and makeup, or wearing a motion capture suit. That's plain and simple, it just needs awarding bodies to understand that.

Of course, Serkis (Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) didn't explicitly mention Venom. But what other role would require Tom Hardy to wear the mocap?

Venom is a towering character, and motion capture technology could give Tom Hardy some extra height to alleviate concern among fans who are still displeased that Christopher Nolan cast him as Bane, even though he was shorter than Christian Bale. The technology would also be great for adding some of Venom’s unique traits, including his abnormally long tongue and huge teeth.

Venom is scheduled for release on October 5, 2018.