Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: everything we know about the long-awaited PS5 sequel

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is surely top of the list of many players’ most anticipated games coming in 2023. It’s going to be a PS5 exclusive, and continues the story of Peter Parker and Miles Morales as they face off against new enemies. 

While there’s still a lot to learn about the highly-anticipated sequel to Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, we do know a few details thanks to the game’s initial reveal. It’ll launch in 2023, though we don’t have exact timings yet. A trailer was released alongside the reveal. It showed Venom walking out of the shadows towards Peter and Miles. Kraven the Hunter is also rumored to be one of the villains.

There are plenty of questions that Sony and Insomniac have yet to answer about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, but it’s still early days. As we draw closer to a possible release date, we’re likely to hear more on what we should expect from Spidey’s second outing. For now, here’s everything we know so far.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: cut to the chase

• What is it? The sequel to the critically acclaimed Marvel’s Spider-Man
• When can I play it? TBC 2023
• What can I play it on? PS5

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: release date and platforms

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is due to release in 2023 exclusively for PS5, completely skipping PS4. Right now, we don’t have a more specific release date outside of that 2023 release window, though we expect developer Insomniac Games will narrow the date down sometime this year. 

The good news is, Spider-Man 2 is still on track for its 2023 release window, according to Insomniac. In response (opens in new tab) to a fan concerned about a delay on Twitter, the official Insomniac Games account said: “We’re making good progress and it’s still slated for 2023.”

While not confirmed, it’s possible we could see Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 coming to PC at a later date. We’ve seen Sony bringing more and more of its first-party titles to PC recently, with Marvel’s Spider-Man already on the platform and Miles Morales arriving in November. We wouldn’t expect Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to be available on Steam at launch, but a PC release later down the line looks likely.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: trailer

Reveal trailer
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was revealed with a trailer at the September 2021 PlayStation Showcase. The trailer is only around one-and-half minutes long, but it offers us a fair amount of details. For one, we see both Peter Parker and Miles Morales taking fighting goons, suggesting we may get to play as both Spider-Men this time around.

At the very end, we got a surprise appearance of the infamous Spider-Man villain Venom – an outer-world symbiote with a passion for violence – so we expect he’ll be one of the sequel’s main villains.  Unfortunately, there was no gameplay to analyze, but we briefly see a shot of Peter getting a power surge with his Iron Spider arms, suggesting suit powers may be making a return. 

We also hear an ominous voice talking over the trailer, suggesting Peter and Miles will have yet another villain to face off against. Based on their speech about looking for a challenge and formidable opponent we’d put our money on it being Kraven the Hunter – a classic Spider-Man villain with a similar attitude towards the prey he seeks out in the comics. Check out the trailer below:

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: news and rumors

Gameplay reveal incoming?
Insider and media analyst Millie Amand has claimed that we’ll be getting a look at Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 gameplay soon. Claiming that it’s currently “exceeding expectations for Marvel higher-ups,” Amand tweeted that “‘Fluidity’ and ‘visual punch’ is striking according to an employee of Marvel.” She ended this by saying we’ll be getting gameplay footage soon.

Unfortunately, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 didn’t appear in the September 2022 State of Play or the one that aired in October 2022. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before our first real look at Insomniac’s upcoming sequel.

Co-op on the cards?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 might just include some kind of co-op element, according to rumors.

Following the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man on PC, dataminers have uncovered what looks like a scrapped multiplayer mode in the game files. Found by Twitter (opens in new tab) user DniweTamp (via Reddit (opens in new tab)) the files seem to show co-op and multiplayer notifications as well as some kind of PvP mode which would pit Miles Morales and Peter Parker against one another in a competition.

That’s a pretty exciting thing to scrap but Insomniac never actually announced any plans for a multiplayer mode in the first place. Now fans are naturally wondering if we could see the feature make some kind of appearance in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. 

The PlayStation blog post (opens in new tab) announcing the game pretty explicitly said that the sequel is a single-player experience but the reveal trailer did lean heavily on Peter fighting alongside Miles, something which could translate well into co-op. While it doesn’t feel impossible that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 could indeed launch as a single-player experience but add a co-op element at a later date, we just can’t be sure about Insomniac’s plans until it officially confirms them. 

Miles Morales novel writer joins Insomniac Games
Brittney M. Morris, the author of the Miles Morales prequel novel, Wings of Fury, has joined Insomniac Games as a writer. Morris announced the news on Twitter, revealing that the first project she will be working on is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Morris’ addition to the team is certainly welcome news. Her novel was well-received and her knowledge of the Miles Morales character is sure to be a boon to the sequel’s writing.

It will be a darker sequel like Empire Strikes Back
It sounds like we really are getting the darker Spider-Man game we all wanted. During an appearance on the This Week in Marvel Podcast (opens in new tab), Marvel’s Creative Vice President Bill Rosemann explained that “if the first Spider-Man game was Star Wars [A New Hope], Spider-Man 2 is kind of our Empire [Strikes Back]. It gets a little darker”.

This certainly makes us happy here at TRG as it hopefully means Insomniac’s Spider-Man will remain its own distinct version rather than an imitation of the more family-friendly version we’re used to in the MCU.

Horror movie star will play Venom
Taking to the official PlayStation Blog (opens in new tab) after the PlayStation Showcase 2021, Insomniac Games revealed that horror movie star Tony Todd (who portrays Candyman in the original film series of the same name) will voice Venom.

Todd makes a perfect choice for Venom and is sure to deliver a sinister, guttural voice that’ll have us hiding behind the couch whenever Venom is on-screen. His casting also backs up our hope that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 takes on a more horror-themed tone so we’re especially delighted to hear of his involvement.

Speaking of voice actors, Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter will reprise their roles as Peter and Miles respectively.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: what we want to see

Marvel’s Spider-Men
The trailer seems to suggest we’ll be playing as both Miles and Peter, and the ending of Miles’ solo game would back that up but we don’t yet know for sure. We certainly hope we do get to play as both Spider-Men though, as it would give Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 way more story and gameplay options (and give us twice the web-slinging action).

The Spider-Duo are seen performing combo moves during the PlayStation Showcase 2021 teaser, which indicates we might be able to play as both at the same time at various points in the game, but given that it was all just a cinematic there’s no way to know for sure.

A scarier side of Spider-Man
With Venom and (potentially) Kraven the Hunter making an appearance in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac looks to be gearing its story towards the scarier villains in Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery.

We hope Insomniac delves even deeper into this and includes several other frightening characters like the Lizard, Morbius (or other Marvel vampires like Morlun), and maybe even the Jackal. We wouldn’t be surprised if Green Goblin or Hob Goblin showed up either.

Curt Conners, the human scientist who transforms into the Lizard, already appeared in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales suggesting his villainous side could very well show up in the sequel. The same is true of Norman Osborn who was a key character in the first Marvel’s Spider-Man game so it might not be long before he becomes the Green Goblin.

Based on the ending of Marvel’s Spider-Man’s DLC, it looks like Venom could be Harry Osborn (Norma’s son) in this series. If Harry befalls some terrible fate – seemingly at the hands of Spider-Man – that could be what drives Norman Osborn to become a villain.

We’ll admit that Jackal and Morlun make a lot less sense, as they tie into much longer stories like Spider-Man’s Clone Saga and Spider-Verse that would be deserving of their own dedicated game, but we’ll have to wait and see.

A world beyond New York
While Spider-Man is known for being an NYC hero, we’d like to see our wall-crawler take a trip to new locations in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 before the city starts to feel stale. While the teaser seems to suggest we’ll definitely be in a New York-like city at some points, thanks to the PS5’s SSD storage and power Insomniac would be able to load in other large locations to explore too.

One option – especially if they take the horror route – could be to include a character like Doctor Strange who could transport us into fearsome realms, or we might see our heroes go on the run if they find Kraven the Hunter too deadly a threat to handle. Heck, we could even go to visit Symkaria the home of Silver Sable, and a location that Peter was visiting in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

New York definitely works great as a setting for Spider-Man games thanks to its looming skyscrapers that are perfect for web-swinging, but given that it’s already featured in both of Insomniac’s previous titles we’re worried it’ll grow boring eventually.