Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 senior creative director Bryan Intihar has shared that he felt “so scared” when it came to casting Venom in the upcoming PS5 exclusive.
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In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Intihar and other members of the Insomniac Games team said that there was a lot of pressure to develop a new experience that would be as beloved as the original Marvel’s Spider-Man.
“We knew it would be so anticipated and people would have a lot of opinions on it,” said Intihar. Casting the role was “one of the things I was avoiding for as long as possible, because I was so scared of who we were going to get to do the voice,” continued the senior creative director.
As luck would have it, Intihar heard actor Tony Todd’s voice in the trailer for the newest Candyman movie in 2021. At the same time, the actor also submitted an audition tape for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and the team were left in awe of Todd’s interpretation 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,” explained Intihar.
Senior art director Jacinda Chew weighed in on the quandary of the villain’s design, inspired by its original iconic looks from the comic books as well as the bearing that Venom has in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2‘s story.
“One of the challenges we had throughout production was, how much does [Venom] talk?” Chew revealed. “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,” added 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.”
In other gaming news, voice actor Doug Cockle emphasised how it is incredibly important for men to talk about their health in light of his own cancer diagnosis.
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