FIVE years ago, Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man was a blockbuster hit at release, breaking all sorts of sales figures.

Praised for its storytelling (among a multitude of other things), the game ends with a scene that teases a new origin story for the alien symbiote Venom, showing that it is being used to treat Peter Parker’s best friend, Harry Osborn’s incurable disease.

As of Oct 20, Venom has returned in the sequel to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which has what many are calling the best Spider-Man story in recent times.

In an interview with Insider prior to the game’s launch, senior narrative director Jon Paquette delved a little into how the studio approached creating their version of Venom.

Paquette revealed that the team took inspiration from the entire breadth of Venom’s storied history, from the moment the alien symbiote was first introduced as Peter Parker’s “new suit” from the famous Secret Wars comic book crossover in the mid-1980s all the way to the recent storyline involving Knull, the primordial god that created the symbiotes.

“There’s such a rich universe there, and there’s a lot that the comics have done. We tried to take all that in and then forget about it and think about what would be best for our characters and our franchise”.

Asked by Insider whether there will be a spin-off featuring Venom similar to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Paquette said the door is open, but it depends on the reaction from fans. In related news, on X (formerly Twitter).

Insomniac Games community director James Stevenson revealed in a reply to another user that Spider-Man 2 will not have “New Game+” and “Mission Replay” features at launch, but the developers are working on an update for these later on.