Insomniac recasts Peter Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man for PS5, and fans are not happy

As Sony gears up for the impending release of their next-gen console, the PlayStation 5, one of their flagship developers, Insomniac Games, has unveiled major changes to their upcoming Marvel's Spider-Man remaster that has fans criticising them.

In a blog post shared on 29th September by Sony, the developers announced that John Bubniak, the actor that lend his facial expressions to Peter Parker in the original 2018 release, will be recast, with the web-slinger now being portrayed by Ben Jordan.

"We loved working with John Bubniak on the original game; however, to get a better match to Peter Parker/Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal’s facial capture, we have cast Ben Jordan to be the face model for Peter Parker on the PS5 console," James Stevenson, Community Director at Insomniac Games, said. 

Bubniak's face on the left, Jordan's on the right (Photo: Insomniac Games)

This change was not received well by the community, which was already attached to Bubniak's work on both the original game and the three pieces of downloadable content that followed (collectively called "The City That Never Sleeps" DLC).

As of the time of writing, the YouTube video showcasing the new look of Peter Parker has over 6,000 dislikes, compared to the less than 3,500 likes.

Dinosarro, a YouTube content creator with over 500k subscribers, commented on the video that the original Spider-Man "looked so much better. He was a young adult, kinda bulky. That new one looks like a skinny teenager even younger than Miles."

Marvel's Spider-Man takes place after Peter Parker has done the superhero gig for 8 years, being 23 when players get thrown into the story, and it seems that making him look that much younger fails to convey how experienced the friendly neighborhood web-slinger really is.

• Read more: Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West will also come to PS4, Sony confirms

Marvel's Spider-Man Remaster will be released alongside Spider-Man: Miles Morales on 12th November. At the moment, there is no way to purchase the title stand alone.