ENTERTAINMENT

Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 will see Peter Parker doing his Spider-Man thing despite what the ending of Spider-Man 2 suggests, the actor behind the character has said.

Speaking to The Direct, Yuri Lowenthal suggested Parker will play an active role in the so far unannounced but expected Marvel’s Spider-Man 3.

“There are very few things that I can say about this game, but you have somehow landed on the one thing that I can answer, and that’s that, yes, Peter is not gone,” Lowenthal said. “He will be a part of the next game and he won’t be relegated to the couch, I promise.”

Spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 follow.

The ending of Spider-Man 2 sees Peter Parker pass the Spider-Man torch to Miles Morales as the primary Spidey in a cutscene that suggests Parker wants to take an indefinite hiatus from web-slinging. The ending is seen by some as a sort of retirement for Peter Parker, but Lowenthal has repeatedly said Pete has more to offer.

“There have been some comments recently that were picked up to infer that Peter’s out and Miles is in,” Lowenthal said in an interview with Variety last year.

“While I think that Peter would love to believe that he can just turn it off and not be Spider-Man anymore and live a completely normal life, I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen now.”

“I think 100% he trusts Miles,” Lowenthal continued. “Miles has really stepped up and he’s like, ‘Oh, maybe I can get a little break.’ And I did get a vacation to Symkaria during the Miles game. Not much of a vacation, but at least MJ got to learn to ride a motorcycle, which is awesome.” That motorcycle line is a nod to MJ’s newfound skill with a bike in Spider-Man 2 (and a cool Akira Easter egg).

In October, Insomniac made the shock announcement that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 wouldn’t get any additional story content, putting to bed fan hopes for DLC.

The announcement came in the same breath that Sony announced a PC version of Spider-Man 2, which launched in January — one of the quickest turnarounds from single-player PS5 exclusive to PC from the company so far.

Since Spider-Man 2 came out in September 2023, Insomniac has released a number of updates for the game, adding New Game+, mission replay, new suits, and more. But fans had hoped that story DLC would give them more of a reason to return to Insomniac’s wonderful recreation of New York than the addition of new features.

But fans hadn’t just hoped for Spider-Man 2 story DLC, they had expected it after the game itself left a number of threads that Insomniac might have pulled on for additional content, including the introduction of Carnage.

Beyond that, though, the devastating Insomniac data breach of December 2023, which revealed the studio’s upcoming slate of releases, and the accidental release of Spider-Man 2’s development game menu last year, all pointed to planned DLC. Indeed, the development game menu included what looked like the entire arc of a DLC called the ‘Beetle Villain Arc.’

Throughout the turbulence caused by the Insomniac data breach, Sony made a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. Insomniac was one of a number of PlayStation studios hit by the cuts. Alongside the layoffs, some in-development games were canceled, Sony said at the time.

To find out how Insomniac has set up its next sequel, check out IGN’s Spider-Man 2 ending explained.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.