https://gamerant.com/spider-man-2-peter-parker-face-change-yuri-lowenthal-response/Yuri Lowenthal, the actor behind Peter Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, once again addresses his character's controversial facial redesign.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 voice actor Yuri Lowenthal has once again addressed Peter Parker’s controversial redesign and the ongoing discourse surrounding it. When Marvel’s Spider-Man was remastered for the PlayStation 5 in 2020, Insomniac made one major change to its leading web-slinger: while actor John Bubniak served as the performance capture artist for Peter’s unmasked face in the original PS4 version, he was replaced by Ben Jordan in the updated PS5 and PC ports. This change was carried over into that year’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales spin-off, and Ben Jordan’s version of Peter Parker will be seen once again in the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
The decision to alter Peter Parker’s appearance in the later Marvel’s Spider-Man sequels was made to have the character better resemble his voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, but fans who preferred John Bubniak’s older look have accused Insomniac of trying to replicate Tom Holland’s more youthful Spider-Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and feel that this is a poor fit for the experienced web-slinger established in the first game. Said fans have tried to restore John Bubniak’s Peter Parker in the Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC port using mods, while others have made peace with Ben Jordan’s version and even prefer it to the original.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has only reignited the Peter Parker redesign debate, and even the actor behind the wise-cracking hero is growing weary of it. Yuri Lowenthal recently sat down for an interview with Comicbook.com, during which the subject of Peter’s altered face came up. When asked about the change, Lowenthal replied that it never really bothered him that much. “The performance was the same for me. I got over it as soon as they said 'Hey, we wanna make this change so that the facial animation is better.' I said 'I'm all in!' I don't care if he looks like a goblin, if my performance is better, then I'm in.”
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 star Yuri Lowenthal went on to state that he has grown somewhat tired of the constant back-and-forth about which version of Marvel's Spider-Man's Peter Parker is better, as he feels that “everything that needs to be said has been said” and that some fans will take longer to get over the change than others. By the same token, he noted that people connected deeply enough to the character he helped create in Marvel’s Spider-Man to have such a reaction to his redesign - even as he hopes that everyone will “get over it.”
Sure enough, the Marvel’s Spider-Man version of Peter Parker has quickly become one of the most popular incarnations of the beloved superhero - so much so that he had a brief cameo appearance in this year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ahead of his return in Spider-Man 2. There will be much for fans to talk about when Spider-Man 2 launches in October, but Yuri Lowenthal feels that the controversy surrounding Peter’s infamous redesign has already been played out.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 releases on October 20, exclusively for PS5.
