Just like Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Spider-Man 2 is packed full of spectacular Easter Eggs for comic book fans. However, we've now learned that the sequel also features a couple of very unexpected voice cameos.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star Nathan Fillion and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's Alan Tudyk both lend their voices to the game and, according to senior creative director Bryan Intihar, you'll encounter them when you meet the two Spider-Man-style bodega cat mascots while snapping photos for Robbie Robertson.
"One of our writers, Nick Folkman, wrote up a bunch of lines for Nathan and Alan to read," Intihar tells Entertainment Weekly. "They came in on a weekend and went into the VO booth and they vamped for a while. They're huge fans of the game."
"I think we brought them in because they wanted to be part of the next game," he continues. "It's really cool when you have actors of their stature who get excited about your stuff and want to be in it."
Here's a closer look at the duo (via GameFragger.com):
Cameos like that are great fun, of course, but an even more monumental moment for comic book fans comes when Cletus Kasady is introduced as the leader of a group called the Cult of the Flame.
Spider-Man 2 puts a very different take on the villain but, when all is said and done, he successfully enacts a plan to steal a sample of the symbiote from Oscorp, promising that "When the Crimson Hour rolls over this earth, it shall bring truth, judgment, and carnage." Needless to say, we now expect Carnage to take centre stage in future DLC.
Chad Doreck plays the villain and while no one involved with the game will confirm or deny those DLC plans, narrative director Ben Arfmann has told Gizmodo this was very much meant as just an introduction to Cletus.
"Like we were saying 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. We didn’t want to shortchange that story by not giving it full service."
"At least in this game, we got to introduce our version of Cletus and also do some work on the relationship between Peter and Yuri Watanabe, who’s now become Wraith. If we’re gonna dive into that Carnage storyline, we want to make sure to really give it everything that it deserves."
With Peter Parker essentially retiring from being Spider-Man (at least for the time being), Miles Morales may have to deal with Carnage alone. However, the villain is likely a big enough threat to convince the original web-slinger that New York needs him again.
Spider-Man 2 is now on sale.