Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is still at least a couple of years away, but the game’s brief reveal trailer still revealed a surprising amount, with major villains such as Kraven the Hunter and Venom both being confirmed for the game. Those are two huge names, of course, and any Spidey fan is going to be over the moon about their inclusion in the upcoming sequel, but Spider-Man as a property has a long, rich, and deep history full of excellent villains and characters, and if Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales were any indication, Insomniac absolutely loves diving into that goldmine and using those characters in their own stories in really interesting ways. That, of course, means that even though Insomniac have revealed that Kraven the Hunter and Venom are in the game, they’ve only just started scratching the surface. And here, we’re going to do a little bit of theorizing and speculating and talk about some other major characters that might have a role to play in the game.
HARRY OSBORN
Let’s start with the most obvious choice. The post-credits scenes in both games so far have shown that Norman Osborne used the Symbiote to keep Harry alive, who, contrary to what Peter and MJ believed, was never in Europe at all. And once you’ve made the obvious conclusion, the first assumption you arrive at is that Harry Osborn, not Eddie Brock, is going to be Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (which has actually happened in the Spider-Man universe before, so it wouldn’t be the first time). Regardless of whether or not that’s the case though, we’re really curious to learn more about Harry himself. Seeing Venom in action will be amazing, of course, but we also hope to see Harry in the flesh and interact with Peter and MJ, and reveal some of the many, many mysteries that his past is shrouded in even now.
GREEN GOBLIN
Norman Osborn was a crucial part of Marvel’s Spider-Man’s story, and he was a pretty shady guy in the game, to say the very least. Even so, in Insomniac’s universe, he still hasn’t become the Green Goblin yet, even though Peter has been Spider-Man for over eight years at this point. And as one of the biggest and most important villains in Spider-Man history, Green Goblin just has to show up at some point in Insomniac’s universe as well. There’s just no way that doesn’t happen. With all the complications surrounding Harry and the Symbiote, Oscorp’s failures in Marvel’s Spider-Man, and that game itself having included more than a few not-so-subtle Green Goblin secrets, all the pieces are in place for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to bring Green Goblin into the fray.
GWEN STACY
Given how important Gwen Stacy is as a character in the larger Spider-Man universe, it seems impossible that she won’t show up at some point in one of Insomniac’s games, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 seems like a great time to do that. Insomniac has established its own universe and characters and will be looking to bring in more major faces from the source material, and a fan-favourite like Gwen Stacy seems like an inevitable addition. And who know, maybe Insomniac could even set up a standalone Spider-Gwen game the way they did for Miles.
CHAMELEON
Chameleon is one of Spider-Man’s oldest and biggest supervillains, and for that reason alone, we’d love to see him in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. And now that we know that Kraven the Hunter is going to be in the game, there’s a very good chance that Chameleon will be as well. That’s because the two are half brothers, and in one of Spider-Man’s most iconic stories, it is Chameleon who essentially orchestrates Kraven’s “hunt” for Spider-Man. Of course, if past games are anything to go by, Insomniac’s not going to adapt any past story as is, but Kraven and Chameleon are two very intrinsically linked characters, and both would benefit hugely from each other’s presence.
TASKMASTER
Taskmaster was a semi-major character in Marvel’s Spider-Man, being relegated largely to side quests, so we don’t expect him to suddenly become a huge threat in Spider-Man 2– but we’d be surprised if he doesn’t return in some capacity anyway. The first game didn’t exactly resolve his character arc, and we still don’t know who it was that hired him to observe and potentially recruit Spider-Man, so there’s definitely some unfinished business there. Of course, he may not be very high up on Insomniac’s list of priorities, especially in terms of which villains to include in the game, but we’re still expecting the upcoming sequel to bring him back and shed more light on the mysteries surrounding his character.
MYSTERIO
Thanks to a couple of secrets in Marvel’s Spider-Man, we know that Mysterio already exists in Insomniac’s Spidey universe, and that Peter has gone up against him in the past, and as fans of the property, the developers will obviously be chomping at the bit to introduce a supervillain as beloved and iconic as Mysterio at some point. Given his unique powers, a boss fight against him could also potentially be fantastic, and of course, a fresh new take on such a well-known character is always fun to see. With Venom and Kraven the Hunter already being confirmed as major villains (and Green Goblin probably emerging at some point as well), Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 already has quite a lot going on in the supervillains department, so including Mysterio as well may be a bit tricky. Then again, there was no shortage of iconic villains in the first game, so we wouldn’t be surprised if Insomniac pulled of something similar (if not better) in the sequel.
LIZARD
Curt Connors, a.k.a. The Lizard, was one of the first major baddies Peter fought in his career as Spider-Man in Insomniac’s universe, and we know that despite Peter’s efforts to cure him, he’s still very much infected with, well, lizardness, and that he’s still at large in New York. More importantly, however, Curt Connors was also shown in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ post-credits scene, where he’s shown to be working with Norman Osborn in their attempts to cure Harry with the Symbiote. In light of that, a larger role for Connors in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is pretty much guaranteed. Insomniac clearly has plans for the character, and we can’t wait to see what they do with him.
WOLVERINE
This one’s out of left field, and there’s basically nothing in the last two games to suggest that it could ever happen, but given recent development, we’re still hopeful that it might happen after all. Because as we all now know, Insomniac is also making a Wolverine game. Given how little we know about that game, there’s no shortage of unanswered questions right now- one of the biggest ones being whether or not it will be set in the same universe as Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. If they are all set in the same universe, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him making a brief cameo appearance to set up his own upcoming game.