Entertainment Weekly has dropped an exclusive interview with Insomniac’s Brian Intihar around the upcoming blockbuster PlayStation 5 exclusive, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and with it brought the world a fresh new look at none other than Venom themselves.
In the piece, which you can read right here, Intihar describes the daunting task of casting Venom and the road to taking actor Tony Todd (Candyman, The Crow) onto the project to voice the iconic character. It turns out that just as the studio was going through Todd’s previous work as horror icon, Candyman, the actor himself had submitted an audition tape for the game.
“Everything we talked about [with] Venom — that sense of strength, that sense of fear, that sense of overwhelming, so different from Peter — Tony embraces that completely in the performance,” Intihar told EW.
Insomniac also shared with the outlet a brand-new render of Venom in the game, giving keen fans their best look at the character as represented in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 yet:
Speaking to Venom’s look, senior art director Jacinda Chew revealed that there are specific aspects of the game’s story that had a direct impact on the design. The spider insignia is one of them. “One of the challenges we had throughout production was, how much does [Venom] talk?” she told EW. “I remember we did some concepts early on [of] does Venom have lips? Does he laugh? Does he smile? Does he frown? It’s a fine line between making this creature scary and intimidating, but then also, I guess, relatable.”
“For us, Venom is the host plus the symbiote,” Intihar added. “You don’t get Venom without both of them being bonded together. What Tony represents is that bond. I think, if anything, casting Tony made us feel more confident in the visual design of the character.”
We recently spoke to Intihar himself along with game director, Ryan Smith, about the ambitious sequel’s game world, characters, new abilities, protagonist switching and more. Read that here.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases exclusively for PS5 on October 20, 2023. Amazon has pre-orders for $99 with free shipping.
