The voice of Peter Parker in Insomniac’s Spider-Man, Yuri Lowenthal, has revealed that his portrayal of the symbiote suit is based on “behaviours of addiction”.
Ever since Spider-Man 2 was first revealed and Venom was confirmed to play a key role in the game’s story, it’s been speculated that Peter Parker was going to get the symbiote at some point and become influenced by it. As it turns out, that was right on the money, as the PlayStation Showcase gameplay trailer confirmed right off the bat that Bully Lowenthal is on the case, deep voice and all.
We’ve seen a little of Lowenthal’s portrayal of the symbiote suit already and it’s clear that the alien parasite is going to turn Peter into a much angrier and more aggressive person, which can be seen in how he interacts with Miles and even the people that he saves. It’s a radically different Peter than what we’ve seen in the other games, and it turns out that his new personality is inspired by addiction.
Speaking to The Direct during MomoCon, Lowenthal revealed that the darker take on Peter is “rooted in reality” and is inspired by how people act when they’re addicted, something that Lowenthal notes is hard to do because it’s not the same for everyone.
Lowenthal said, “We worked really, really hard, as a team to find what was the right thing because sometimes it just sounded comical when I would just, you know, rage… We had to find the levels and we have to root it all in, even though it’s not a real thing, we need to be rooted in reality”.
He continued, revealing that his portrayal of Peter’s use of the symbiote is based on “the behaviours of addiction” and that he wanted to find the different levels of it since it’s not the same every time. In regards to the voice and tone, Lowenthal said that it’s hard to access the anger inside of him as he’s generally a happy guy, but that he managed to “dig a little bit” and find it inside him. Lowenthal also compared the anger and voice to Sasuke in Naruto, a similarity that some fans have already been pointing out since the trailer dropped. That, and angry MatPat.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lowenthal noted that the team took “extra special care” to differentiate between the Spider-Man that we all know and love and the one who’s influenced by the symbiote, something that’s already clear in the footage that we’ve seen. Lowenthal also teased that we “ain't seen nothing yet”, which spells trouble for the dark path that Peter is going on.