The man behind Peter Parker himself in Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 has teased how the Venom Symbiote will change his character in the PS5 sequel.
Venom is such an iconic villain within Spider-Man’s lore that he tends to crop up in many of the Webslinger’s stories. However, it wasn’t until the post-credits tag of the first game that he was properly teased for the gaming universe.
While the debut trailer for the highly anticipated sequel showed off Venom himself, the long-awaited new gameplay trailer finally gave fans their first glimpse at Insomniac’s beautiful rendition of the Symbiote suit as worn by Peter Parker.
Peter’s outfit wasn’t the only difference for the webhead—he seemed far more aggressive than usual.
Yuri Lowenthal on Symbiote Spider-Man
When The Direct was in attendance at Yuri Lowenthal's MomoCon 2023 panel on Saturday, May 27, the actor behind Peter Parker in Insomniac's upcoming Spider-Man 2 game teased what’s in store for his hero.
Lowenthal teased how fans “have no idea” and that “there’s a lot of colors” in his Symbiotic performance:
“You have no idea… I think they dropped that [footage]… and I’m so glad they finally showed something... We took extra special care for when Spidey is just regular go-happy-lucky Spidey and when Spidey gets something going on [with the Symbiote]. And there’s a lot of colors. You saw some of them in the trailer they just dropped, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Lowenthal was then asked what the team’s direct inspiration for Symbiote Peter Parker was, explaining how it had to be "rooted in reality:"
“We worked really, really hard, as a team to find what was the right thing because sometimes it just sounded comical when I would just, you know, rage… We had to find the levels and we have to root it all in, even though it’s not a real thing, we need to be rooted in reality.”
The actor revealed that they “looked at addiction in people” and their behavior to best portray Peter's compulsion to the Symbiote:
“And, a lot of it came from... We looked at addiction in people and what the behaviors of addiction are. That’s really what we went to for inspiration and to find the levels of it. It’s not always the same, you know, every time. So yeah, addiction would be my simple answer.”
As for his own process of performing those darker moments in any of his characters, accessing that anger is something the actor feels everyone has. But when he needs to utilize it, he does need to “dig a little harder” than his usual happy-go-lucky performances:
“I think we’ve all got [that anger inside]. Sometimes it’s just… it’s just harder to access or easier to access, you know, depending on how close to the surface it is… Before I started doing Sasuke, I had only played sort of like plucky young heroes that didn’t have anything bad happen to them. And so, to sort of turn that around, I had to dig a little bit, but I’m generally a happy guy. But, you know, I’ve got rage and anger and sadness, and you just gotta dig a little harder…”
Spider-Man Gets Aggressive
One of the most praised parts of the new footage from the game was not only the new Symbiote suit design and gameplay but how Yuri Lowenthal delivered subtle changes in performance.
He wasn’t comically enraged or full-blown emo like Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3–it felt natural. But the change was just enough to catch fans' attention.
The footage from Spider-Man 2 ended just as Miles Morales started to notice how off Peter was, which indicated that it was just the beginning of Pete’s downfall with the Symbiote. But how much will he damage his personal life before realizing he needs to ditch the parasitic outfit?
With how the prequel comics set up the second game, his relationship with MJ is already on the rocks—could his flirtation with Venom be enough to ruin it for good?
Spider-Man 2 is expected to land on the PS5 at some point this fall.
