Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is full of surprises for fans, from post-credits scenes to hidden character cameos, but one in particular features an iconic Firefly duo in fluffy cat costumes.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Spider-Man 2 creative director Bryan Intihar confirmed that Firefly alumni Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk appear in the game as a pair of NPCs to whom the two stars lent their voices in a small piece of side content. The NPCs appear in one of the game’s Photo Op locations, where the game’s two Spider-Men can take photos of New York’s numerous happenings to submit to the Daily Bugle newspaper. At one of these locations, two men in cat masks — voiced by Fillion and Tudyk — accuse one another of stealing their outfit idea as they both attempt to show up each other.
According to Intihar, Fillion and Tudyk recorded for the brief scene over the course of one weekend based on lines from one of the game’s head writers, Nick Folkman. The director said the two are huge fans of Insomniac’s first two Spider-Man games and were thrilled to be involved in the sequel, lending some significant star power to a simple piece of side content that gamers are not even required to play.
Fillion and Tudyk are well known for portraying Captain Malcolm Reynolds and Hoban Washburne, two members of a crew of smugglers from Avengers director Joss Whedon‘s dystopian sci-fi western series Firefly. Premiering in 2002, Firefly was a huge hit with fans, receiving massive praise and equally warm reviews, though it only ran for 11 episodes out of 14 produced after the network canceled it leading up to the season finale. Whedon directed a follow-up film in 2005 titled Serenity, which largely continued the storyline from where the final episode left off.
While their roles in Spider-Man 2 were brief, this is not the first time Fillion or Tudyk have lent their voices to video game projects. The Castle star also portrayed the sarcastic robotic guardian Cayde-6 in both Destiny games, and he and Tudyk both appeared in the video game Halo 3: ODST as Sergeant Buck and the Spartan supersoldier Mickey. Fillion also lent his physical likeness to his in-game character model.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is available now exclusively on the PlayStation 5.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
