Spider-Man 2's narrative director explains why they opted for a fresh take on Venom
"How do we make Venom matter—not just to Spider-Man, but to Peter as well?"
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As Marvel's Spider-Man 2 introduces a fresh take on Venom, one of the game's lead devs explains the thought process of opting for someone other than Eddie Brock.
Traditionally, Venom the symbiote has predominantly joined with characters like Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson, but Spider-Man 2 does things differently by applying that coat of black and white, gooey paint to someone that's still familiar to Spider-Man fans, though not in this context. In an interview with Gizmodo, narrative director Ben Arfmann explains why they opted for this character over someone like Eddie or Flash. Of course, if you don't know who that is just yet (even though it's probably pretty obvious), I should note that there will be spoilers here (including some that wouldn't have been obvious in trailers released so far), so read on at your peril/ pleasure.
Those that have played through the game will have already learned that this time around, Peter Parker's best friend Harry Osborne, i.e. son of Norman Osborne (i.e., the Green Goblin), is Venom, something never seen before in Spider-Man's history. Talking of including Venom in Spider-Man 2, Arfmann said, "The idea of telling a Venom story was something that we knew we wanted to do super early on, and we had conversations about that even during the first Spider-Man.
"For us, that meant: How do we get those personal hooks? How do we make Venom matter—not just to Spider-Man, but to Peter as well? Having Harry be the person who becomes Venom just naturally laid a track where there’d be so much drama here between these two friends."
It's not exactly the first time we've seen conflict between Peter and Harry, so it does feel like a good fit for the character, and means we don't have to see Harry become the Green Goblin for the umpteenth time. Plus, it sure does set us up for a potentially interesting Venom spin-off.
Spider-Man 2's creative director Bryan Intihar also shared in a recent, separate interview that Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine will be in the same universe as its Spider-Man games.