Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will feature a brand new video game version of Venom who hasn't been seen in comic books before. And now senior creative director of Insomniac Games Bryan Intihar is explaining more of what fans can expect from the new Venom in a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, specifically about the process of casting actor Tony Todd as the voice of Venom and how that affected the character's presence and appearance in the game.
EW also has a new look at Venom in the game, seen here:
'Marvel's Spider-Man 2' team discuss the making of Venom and how the Tony Todd-voiced villain impacts the game's story. https://t.co/vnDHRH0X2oJuly 19, 2023
"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," states Intihar.
"For us, Venom is the host plus the symbiote," he continues. "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."
Interestingly, though Venom's human host for the game hasn't been revealed just yet, Intihar hints at Peter Parker's involvement in how the new Venom comes to be.
"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," Intihar states. "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."
The concept of Venom fitting the role of an anti-Spider-Man is central to his design in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, according to the game's creators. Many of the decisions made about how to depict Venom in the game relate back to that core ethos.
"It's really interesting when you start thinking about what makes him different than Spider-Man," states Insomniac Games senior art director Jacinda Chew. "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?"
"One of the challenges we had throughout production was, how much does [Venom] talk?" Chew continues. "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."
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 goes on sale in October.
Read all about the best Venom hosts of all time.
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