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          49ers' George Kittle would have done 'Venom' ad campaign for free

          • Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff WriterOct 1, 2021, 10:00 AM
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              Nick Wagoner is an NFL reporter at ESPN. Nick has covered the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL at ESPN since 2016, having previously covered the St. Louis Rams for 12 years, including three years (2013 to 2015) at ESPN. In his 10 years with the company, Nick has led ESPN's coverage of the Niners' 2019 Super Bowl run, Colin Kaepernick's protest, the Rams making Michael Sam the first openly gay player drafted to the NFL, Sam's subsequent pursuit of a roster spot and the team's relocation and stadium saga. You can follow Nick via Twitter @nwagoner
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          SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle has long been an unabashed fan of all things comics, even going so far as to call himself a "huge superhero nerd."

          Which is why, when he was presented with an opportunity to appear in a national ad campaign for the film "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," the answer was easy.

          "Whew, that was a dream come true for me," Kittle said. "They called and asked and I was like, 'Yeah, and you want to pay me for it, too?' And I was like 'I would have done it for free.'"

          Kittle's affinity for comics and superheroes has always been readily apparent. He has a huge "Joker" tattoo on his left forearm and his father, Bruce, will often cite Batman or Spiderman -- Kittle's two favorite superheroes -- in the weekly pregame letters he sends to his son.

          Venom is a character in the Spiderman comic universe and officially described by Marvel as a "sentient alien symbiote with an amorphous, liquid-like form, who survives by bonding with a host, usually human." Venom was originally a villain in the comics but has evolved into something of an antihero.

          In the first commercial Kittle appears in, it opens with him saying "rent is ridiculous" in the Bay Area, so he got some roommates. It's then revealed that Venom and his "host" Eddie Brock (played by actor Tom Hardy) are those roommates. We then see the various ways Venom, who isn't averse to eating humans, isn't exactly an ideal roommate as Kittle adds commentary. Another spot, which released this week, features Kittle becoming Venom's "host."

          The commercial was shot just before the 49ers opened training camp in late July. Because the movie takes place in San Francisco, Kittle was able to shoot it at a location about 20 minutes from Levi's Stadium. All told, the shoot took about three hours and consisted of Kittle reciting the lines he was fed and working completely on a green screen so Venom and Hardy could be added in via computer generated images.

          "I was giggling," Kittle said. "I was a child that day I had to record that."

          No surprise, Kittle hopes to help commemorate his involvement with the Venom franchise by adding a new tattoo, so long as he can get his wife, Claire, to give him permission.

          In the meantime, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" opened in theatres Oct. 1 and it's fair to say Kittle is at least intrigued by opportunities to appear in future films. Not to worry, 49ers fans: those hopes are for a post-football life.

          "I'm going to try to play football as long as I can," Kittle said. "And then, hopefully, I can get to that in like seven or eight years."