UPDATE
How would you handle Carnage in the third game should he be the main villain? Let us know below!
ORIGINAL STORY
One of the things that had many fans excited about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was the fact that there wasn’t much info about the villains that we would fight in the game. The first confirmed villain was Venom from the original teaser, but there was a lot “up in the air” about the Symbiote at that time due to its “arrival” in the original two games. Then, there was Kraven the Hunter, who would bring a war to New York City for his “special hunt.” Insomniac games kept just about every other villain under wraps so that fans could simply experience the game for themselves and see what happens. But because of that, now everyone is wondering what the future is for one specific villain: Carnage.
We’re about to dive into some BIG spoilers here! So if you don’t want to see them, turn away now!
In the game, while the Venom Symbiote is the focus of the main storyline, we do see the arrival of Cletus Kasady, and he does get the Symbiote to become Carnage. It was only featured in a side mission, but that simply means he’ll be a “focus” later on. In fact, in an interview with iO9, Insomniac’s narrative director Ben Arfmann and writer Brittney Morris confirmed that they intentionally used Carnage this way so that they could tease the future while also focusing on the Spider-Men battling Venom:
“Early on, we knew that we wanted to tell a great Venom story. Anything that would distract from that wasn’t on brand, but at the same time, we’re huge fans of Carnage and Cletus Kasady,” said Arfmann. “We didn’t want to shortchange that story by not giving it full service. If we’re gonna dive into that Carnage storyline, we want to make sure to really give it everything that it deserves.”
“For this game, our priorities were mainly on Pete and Miles, making sure to showcase them as developing heroes from beginning to end, and also doing a Venom story in our own way,” Morris further noted. “We also had a number of villains that deserve their own time on screen, and we didn’t just want to make them one-dimensional—we really wanted to give them motivations and desires. To do all of that in a way that’s meaningful and a good experience for players, you need time.”
A character tied to Carnage was also “born” in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, so there will be many threads to be pulled should a third game be made, and “Maximum Carnage” be the focus.
