The imminent Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Comic-Con panel is going to be all about Venom. However, Insomniac Games has dropped some more details about the villain just before the convention’s start and even released a new screenshot of him showing off his long tongue and sharp teeth.
Spider-Man 2’s Venom will be different, according to Insomniac
Various members of Insomniac gave the scoop to Entertainment Weekly. Creative director Bryan Intihar talked about how anxious he was in casting Venom since he knew it would be “so anticipated and people would have a lot of opinions on it.” Intihar heard a few of Tony Todd’s lines in the trailer for 2021’s Candyman film and noticed that Todd had actually submitted an audition for the role of Venom.
“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,” said Intihar.
Intihar elaborated on Todd’s performance, saying that it helped the team “feel more confident” in the character’s design.
“For us, Venom is the host plus the symbiote,” said Intihar. “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.”
Intihar also talked about how Insomniac wanted to do something different from what it did with Doc Ock in the first game. And, according to him, Venom fits that bill.
“We wanted to try something very different, and I don’t think you can get much more different from Doc Ock than you do Venom,” said Intihar. “It’s about power, it’s about strength, it’s about being slighted, it’s about Peter being involved much more in the creation of Venom. I think that’s what attracted us.”
Senior narrative director Jon Paquette chimed in and noted that the symbiote provides a lot of great fodder for Peter Parker’s struggles of being Spider-Man.
“One of the things that is great about Spider-Man as a character is he’s always got to make sacrifices,” said Paquette. “The symbiote provides a lot of grist for that mill, so to speak.”
Senior art director Jacinda Chew spoke about designing Venom and how it was a challenge to nail the basics from the spider insignia to whether or not he has lips, as the goal was to make him scary yet somewhat relatable. She then talked more about the character and, while strangely phrased, explained the allegorical meaning behind Venom.
“It’s really interesting when you start thinking about what makes him different than Spider-Man,” Chew says. “The symbiote is often known as an allegory for the darkness that the host is fighting against. So what makes him an anti-Spider-Man?”
Insomniac will have more to say about Venom during its Comic-Con panel scheduled for 2:30 p.m. PT in Hall H on July 20. It might have some other tidbits about the game as a whole, but it is titled “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: Symbiotic Relationships,” so its clear where its focus will be. The panel will have Intihar, Paquette, and Chew, as well as game director Ryan Smith and Marvel Games VP and creative director Bill Rosemann. Various actors will also be there, including Yuri Lowenthal (Peter Parker), Nadji Jeter (Miles Morales), Laura Bailey (Mary Jane Watson), and Tony Todd (Venom).
The studio has been rather cagey about Venom after his very brief debut in the first trailer. It said that the host isn’t Eddie Brock and has only shown him in one screenshot since. Insomniac is seemingly trying to keep the character and other parts of the symbiote under wraps, which has made the alleged leaks and speculation all the more rampant.
