Insomniac's Spider-Man for PS4 releases on September 7th

[H-E-D]

Well, it's certainly making a case against a playable unmasked Peter .

But in all seriousness...for the amount of time we actually get unmasked Peter in the game, I think it's significant, and it leaves a completely different impression of the character compared to the previous face.

I hope it's not the one they're using for Miles' game.

Oh, it totally is. And whatever the sequel ends up as.

[Huntsman Spider]

I found this even more hilarious because it's also Grant Gustin in there, considering all the comparisons to his Barry being like Peter Parker .

(MJ = Iris, Miles = Wally).

I think Grant would make a great Peter Parker

Agreed, and to take the comparisons/analogies further . . . Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus stands in for Eobard Thawne/"Harrison Wells"/Reverse-Flash as the hero's mentor in science (and heroism) turning out to be a villain manipulating him all along, and responsible for the death of the hero's mother (or mother figure) as well.

[GSman]

Honestly, this opened my eyes to something. For all the outrage with people saying he looks too young for a 23 year old, do 23 year olds not look that young? Heck Tom Holland himself is 24, playing a teenager. When Holland gets to Peter's college years will people still be complaining about how young he looks like they are for this game? I mean Tom Holland could be playing a college aged Peter right now, because he's that age. Would people really bat an eye like they're doing here?

[Kaitou D. Kid]

If the change was made to make him look more like Tom Holland, I am perfectly ok with a crunch on development. A crunch on development is preferable to sending Sony the message they can just import parts of MCU Spider-Man into other versions. I consider that a slippery-slope.

[Frontier]

Honestly, this opened my eyes to something. For all the outrage with people saying he looks too young for a 23 year old, do 23 year olds not look that young? Heck Tom Holland himself is 24, playing a teenager. When Holland gets to Peter's college years will people still be complaining about how young he looks like they are for this game? I mean Tom Holland could be playing a college aged Peter right now, because he's that age. Would people really bat an eye like they're doing here?

I haven't even imagined college-aged Holland, to be honest.

[GSman]

I haven't even imagined college-aged Holland, to be honest.

Fair enough, I doubt many people have. But if Holland was portraying a young 20 something Peter instead of a teenager would you have bought it? And accepted it? Considering that's his real age?

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Fair enough, I doubt many people have. But if Holland was portraying a young 20 something Peter instead of a teenager would you have bought it? And accepted it? Considering that's his real age?

Part of why we can't imagine it is due to the ageist undertones at the core of MCU Spider-Man. He is written like a child more than even your average High School Spider-Man is (let alone all versions).

[GSman]

Part of why we can't imagine it is due to the the ageist undertones at the core of MCU Spider-Man. He is written like a child more than even the average High School Spider-Man is (let alone all versions).

That's probably one of my peeves with the MCU version, showing he's still a kid learning the ropes is fine, but they have really leaned into the childish aspect of the character, to appeal him more to kids and pre teens perhaps. Either way let's just for the sake of this scenario say Holland was cast as an early 20 something Peter instead of a teen, I doubt there would have been any outrage like we're getting here. Sure the model they're using for Peter looks young but so does Holland himself.

[Frontier]

That's probably one of my peeves with the MCU version, showing he's still a kid learning the ropes is fine, but they have really leaned into the childish aspect of the character, to appeal him more to kids and pre teens perhaps. Either way let's just for the sake of this scenario say Holland was cast as an early 20 something Peter instead of a teen, I doubt there would have been any outrage like we're getting here. Sure the model they're using for Peter looks young but so does Holland himself.

That's the thing though, they cast Holland because he looked believable as a teenager and younger than the other film Spider-Men. I don't know if they were intending to have him age with the character long-term but that was what the initial casting was focused on.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

That's probably one of my peeves with the MCU version, showing he's still a kid learning the ropes is fine, but they have really leaned into the childish aspect of the character, to appeal him more to kids and pre teens perhaps. Either way let's just for the sake of this scenario say Holland was cast as an early 20 something Peter instead of a teen, I doubt there would have been any outrage like we're getting here. Sure the model they're using for Peter looks young but so does Holland himself.

Even then, this Peter now looks younger than their Miles. I'm not sure a Holland-lookalike works even in the context of this game. What you're describing may have been fine if Miles looked even more babyfaced than the new Peter.

Plus, I can't speak for anyone else, but part of what bugs me about is that it can be the start to a very bad slippery slope. Marvel already has a track record of making things more like the movies, and that is personally not something I would want to see happen in regards to Spider-Man. I think that bugs me more than just the face change in-and-of-itself does.

[GSman]

That's the thing though, they cast Holland because he looked believable as a teenager and younger than the other film Spider-Men. I don't know if they were intending to have him age with the character long-term but that was what the initial casting was focused on.

Yeah that's true, though I think the plan is to age the character with each film. I recall reading before that each film has a year gap.
So in Homecoming he was 15, Far From Home 16, and it'll supposedly go on as they continue the movies all the way to college years. But my point is Holland looks young but was he was 19 in his first appearnce. We know he's playing a teen and he was cast for his young looks. My point is, if he were cast as the same age as this Peter is in the game, would there have been an issue? Since Holland himself is testament that early 20 year-olds can look young.

[GSman]

Even then, this Peter now looks younger than their Miles. I'm not sure a Holland-lookalike works even in the context of this game. What you're describing may have been fine if Miles looked even more babyfaced than the new Peter.

Plus, I can't speak for anyone else, but part of what bugs me about is that it can be the start to a very bad slippery slope. Marvel already has a track record of making things more like the movies, and that is personally not something I would want to see happen in regards to Spider-Man. I think that bugs me more than just the face change in-and-of-itself does.

I can understand not wanting it to look like an MCU copy and the like. I'm just pointing out how the too young argument doesn't make much sense to me. In relation to the looking younger than Miles thing, I'm 20 years old. Yet I've met a 17 old who looked way older than me, I originally thought he was 22 or something when I first met him. People can look younger or older in comparison to another person regardless of their actual age.

[Arsenal]

In universe, Peter has been Spider-man for 8 years while Miles hasn’t even became spider-man yet. Peter possibly looking younger than Miles has no impact whatsoever on their relationship dynamics.

Well, it's certainly making a case against a playable unmasked Peter .

But in all seriousness...for the amount of time we actually get unmasked Peter in the game, I think it's significant, and it leaves a completely different impression of the character compared to the previous face.

I hope it's not the one they're using for Miles' game.

It probably is. Odds are it’ll be tweaked in Spider-Man 2 though like Miles’ face was.

[CrimsonEchidna]

I kind of have to give a side-eye to people saying the face change probably caused crunch. It's a possibility, but at this rate this is model they've probably also gone with in the Miles Morales game and also the proper Spider-Man 2 sequel, so demanding they change it back will cause crunch :P

Honestly, this opened my eyes to something. For all the outrage with people saying he looks too young for a 23 year old, do 23 year olds not look that young? Heck Tom Holland himself is 24, playing a teenager. When Holland gets to Peter's college years will people still be complaining about how young he looks like they are for this game? I mean Tom Holland could be playing a college aged Peter right now, because he's that age. Would people really bat an eye like they're doing here?

That's kind of my line of thinking; it's a weird change but people are also being hyperbolic with the "HE LOOKS TOO YOUNG" complaining. I feel like people have let the Hollywood portrayal of how high shoolers look warp their views of how people actually look as they grow up lol

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I'm just pointing out how the too young argument doesn't make much sense to me.

Casting in movies is not the same as perception of age in real life. The fact is that Hollywood always casts actors who are adults as teenagers for labor law reasons and minor laws reasons, as well as story issues (such as if you write a scene of teens making out or doing it, casting adults in that scene makes more sense legally and ethically speaking than teenagers). In the case of Spider-Man 1, where the actors were meant to age up and grow out of high school by the midpoint of the first film, Raimi cast actors who were a little older (Tobey Maguire was 26 playing a teenager in the first half) with Kirsten Dunst at 19 years of age being the only actor close to the age of her character. The Garfield movies screwed up because the first movie was set entirely in high school and you had a 29 year old Garfield playing a 15-16 year old Peter and that didn't work.

In the case of Tom Holland, he was cast to be an entirely teenage Spider-Man and the MCU trilogy was set entirely in high school. Not only does he have baby fat that makes him look too young, makeup and costume also code him as being young. So any attempt to use Holland as a reference basically codes the character as being young looking.

So by casting a 3D Model with a resemblance to Holland (the small eyes, broad forehead, is unmistakably Holland in reference) you basically do real damage to the entire visual texture of the game. The Spider-Man game was explicitly sold and promoted as a story of an older Spider-Man in his college years with some amount of experience on his shoulders. You suddenly recast his face with a younger dude and the effect is ruined.