Spider-Man 2 Game Director Talks About Creating “the Most Relatable Superheroes”

With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 just a week away from launch, fans are naturally excited to see what’s in store for the sequel. In a recent interview with Marvel, Insomniac creative director and game director on Spider-Man 2 Bryan Intihar talked about the many challenges that the two Spideys will be facing in their personal lives.

Intihar talked at length about these challenges, which range from Miles struggling to write the perfect application for getting into college and Peter struggling with the death of Aunt May and trying to balance a teaching gig with his full-time superhero work. Intihar says that it is these problems that make Spider-Man one of the most relatable superheroes of all time, and that players will be able to see shades of themselves through the personal struggles of the two superheroes.

“We all talked about: why do we love Spider-Man? I think the thing that we said right from the bat was: he’s probably the most relatable Super Hero out there. He’s not a soldier, like Captain America. He isn’t a god, like Thor. He isn’t a billionaire, like Tony Stark. He’s a kid from Queens and Miles is a kid from Brooklyn. They have good days and bad days and strengths and weaknesses and real problems that we can all identify with and have struggles that we’ve all had in our lives.”

“I think that we try to inject that into every story that we do. So, for example, probably most people in their lives can identify with when I have to apply for college. That’s what Miles is going [through], like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to write this essay, this college essay,’ and he’s struggling with it. Peter, he’s trying to figure out, ‘Okay, I’m going to start this new teaching gig, and I’m trying to figure out living out and I’m taking over Aunt May’s house. How am I going to do it?’ And then taking that next step with—you know, now him and Mary Jane are back together, and what’s their next step in their relationship? Where’s that going?” he added.

“We probably all have those stories. And then not only that, Peter now has his best friend coming back into his life with Harry, and he has his best friend who he grew up with, but then he has Miles. What’s that like? And then with MJ, she’s trying to establish herself and she has a boss who has a very different philosophy.”

“So it’s finding those situations that, ‘Oh, I remember when I went through that!’ or ‘I know somebody close to me that went through that!’ I think that’s where we kind of start,” he explained. “So yeah, we’re going to have crazy characters and Kraven and Lizard and Venom, but what’s the part when they’re not out there? What’s that part?”

“I think that’s the thing, to me, actually, is the thing I… talk about first. If we can get that down, the other stuff is like—I would say that’s like we’re baking the cake: that’s the cake part, and then the icing is all the Super Hero stuff we got away with on top of it,” he concluded.

Marvel Games VP and Creative Director Bill Rosemann also jumped into the conversation and hinted that these struggles will continue to escalate in intensity as both Spider-Men reach their coming-of-age and will be making important life decisions about everything from their careers to life partners and much more.

“And you talk about what they’re going through, and there’s an escalation, right? Because every Spider-Man story, no matter how old the different Spider-Mans are, it’s always a coming of age story at its heart,” he says.

“What does that mean? Well, there are moments in our lives when we have to leave the nest for whatever reason, and at that moment, we have to make decisions by ourselves. What we have from here, from the first game to this game, is—as they’re all getting a bit older—the choices that they have to make are escalated. What do I do with my life? What kind of person do I want to be? Who do I want to be my partner? So they’re all at a moment where they’re making some really key choices and decisions, and that’s just in their civilian life!”

“So you add on all the Super Hero, and that’s the Marvel magic. We say, ‘Worlds colliding.’ My civilian life, my Super Hero life, they’re both at odds and I have to make a choice. As you go through the game and experience it, you’ll see all the choices,” he concluded.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches on 20 October 2023 for PlayStation 5. We will be doing extensive coverage for the game ranging from reviews to guides and much more, so stay tuned in the meanwhile.