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Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is now available on PS5, and the game's Venom-centric story puts the symbiote in the spotlight with a brand new host who's never been Venom in comics. And now, Insomniac narrative director Ben Arfmann has opened up about why they went with a new Venom host, and why they picked the character who bonds with the symbiote in the game.
Needless to say, spoilers ahead for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, including the reveal of the new Venom's identity and plot points of the game.
Speaking to Gizmodo, Arfmann explained the studio's motivation behind making Harry Osborn the new Venom. As it turns out, the biggest reason to make Harry into Venom is his longstanding friendship with Peter Parker, which makes their eventual rivalry more dramatic.
"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," Arfmann says. "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 [Osborn] be the person who becomes Venom just naturally laid a track where there’d be so much drama here between these two friends."
In comic books, Peter and Harry have the same kind of fraught relationship as friends out of costume, but enemies in their alter egos. However, rather than Venom, Harry Osborn has often moonlighted as the Green Goblin, a villainous identity he inherited from his father Norman Osborn.
What's also interesting is that rather than simply adapting Eddie Brock's Venom story to feature Harry Osborn, Harry's Venom arc includes elements of Flash Thompson's time with the Symbiote as Agent Venom.
"Our process is always: we read everything, we watch and consume everything that exists around these characters and in these stories. Then as [senior narrative director] Jon Paquette always says, we forget about everything," Arfmann explains.
"We try and ingest all of it and then do our own thing. You can see influences from other stories, as you say," he continues. "But when we were telling it, all we were thinking about was our Harry Osborn and Peter Parker, and trying to figure out how to put them on this incredible collision course that would challenge them both emotionally. We love Eddie’s Venom, and we definitely wanted to tell our own Venom story - one that was unique and interesting, and also build on this distinct lore we set up."
Learn about the best Venom hosts of all time.
