Highlights

  • Black Cat's ending scene in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was made more emotionally resonant by actress Erica Lindbeck, who ad-libbed a "thank you" line in the script.
  • Lindbeck's performance was influenced by her personal emotions, as she shot the scene during the week when her partner was first admitted to the hospital.
  • The scene signifies a closure for Black Cat's part in the game's story, and fans expressed their desire for the character to return in future sequels.

There's an important scene featuring iconic Spider-Man anti-hero Black Cat that touched Marvel's Spider-Man 2 players, and the actress behind the character shed some more light on why it ended up being more poignant. Basically, she changed the way the moment was written in the script, making it more emotionally resonant.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2, which released in October for the PlayStation 5, continues the story a year after the events of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. As such, a lot of changes and developments have occurred within the franchise's setting, including a lot of progression in the lives of its characters. For example, classic Spider-Man villains like the Lizard, Tombstone, and Mysterio have given up their evil ways to become more productive members of society.

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One subplot involves a life change that happens to Felicia Hardy, also known as Black Cat. Early in the game, the player takes on a mission in which Miles Morales chases Black Cat all over New York City as she wields a mystical artifact that allows her to create teleportation portals after stealing the Wand of Watoomb, likely from this universe's version of Doctor Strange. In a story that sees Miles take on a bigger role in the Marvel's Spider-Man universe, he eventually teams up with her after she reveals she stole the artifact to escape Kraven by trying to get to Paris, where her girlfriend is caught up in some trouble. After he helps her get there, Black Cat whispers her thanks in a tender moment before leaving. Black Cat actress Erica Lindbeck revealed in a tweet that the "thank you" line the character whispers was ad-libbed after the script called for her to only give Miles a non-verbal affirmation.

Lindbeck, who also mo-capped Black Cat in the scene, said that she wanted to "try something more straightforward" in the delivery of that line, as she was feeling a little emotional after her partner was admitted to the hospital on the week it was shot. Her partner, fellow video game voice actor Billy Kametz would eventually pass away after a battle with colon cancer, making her acting in the cutscene more meaningful.

The mission and sequence would end up being the character's curtain call in Spider-Man 2, as Black Cat effectively gets away, closing out her part in Miles Morales and Peter Parker's story. Hardy figured heavily in the first Spider-Man game, thanks to a few side missions and then a dedicated DLC pack inside The City That Never Sleeps.

Spider-Man 2 fans only had positive things to say about how Lindbeck played the scene, with some on Reddit saying the line added more sincerity and emotional weight. The mission was Morales's first interaction with Black Cat, where he finds out she's not a bad person after everybody warned him not to trust her. Although Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games seems to be hesitant to revisit many characters it previously used given the way some classic Spider-Man villains were treated in this story, many expressed their wish for Hardy to return in a future sequel.