Highlights

  • Spider-Man's dual identity is a key narrative point, making it challenging for actors to balance his superhero and human sides.
  • Voice actors like Yuri Lowenthal have become synonymous with the wall-crawler through iconic portrayals in games and animations.
  • Marvel Rivals continues to solidify Lowenthal as the quintessential Spider-Man voice actor, showcasing his talent in the role.

Widely believed to be the most popular superhero on the planet, Spider-Man is a complex, lovable character that presents some interesting challenges for any actor looking to take on the role. While other superheroes need to balance their dual identities carefully, that's a primary narrative point in the vast majority of Spider-Man stories, and balancing those two halves can be difficult for some actors to achieve, especially when actors can only use their voice, which often results in a Spider-Man portrayal that really nails the quippy superhero half of the character, but not the naive, heartfelt human side, or vice versa.

With Spider-Man being such a challenging character to bring to life, it's only natural that the ones who have gotten it right over the years have become household names among fans, such as Christopher Daniel Barnes, Josh Keaton, and Rino Romano. But few voice actors have become quite as synonymous with the wall-crawler as Yuri Lowenthal, whose career as Spider-Man is only continuing to grow thanks to games like Marvel Rivals.

p-1
Related
Marvel Rivals’ Confirmed Locations Mean One Wall-Crawler Might Not Be Far Behind

Marvel Rivals has only clarified two settings it'll take place in thus far and one has already explicitly referenced yet another Spider-Person.

Marvel Rivals Continues to Cement Yuri Lowenthal as The Quintessential Spider-Man

An Overview of Yuri Lowenthal's Spider-Man Career

Though Yuri Lowenthal's voice acting career began back in the early 1990s, one of his first major video game roles came about a decade later, with the actor voicing the titular Prince in 2003's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. But it would be a few more years before Lowenthal received his first gig as the web-slinger, and his first few outings as Spidey weren't all that conventional.

According to IMDb, in 2008, Yuri Lowenthal voiced Spider-Man for the first time, appearing in Zen Pinball. In 2011, Lowenthal would get another crack at the character, playing Spidey in the family-friendly MMO Marvel Super Hero Squad Online.

In 2014, Lowenthal took the lead role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 tie-in game, but only in the mobile versions, with Sam Riegel playing the part in the mainline console and PC versions. In the same year, Yuri Lowenthal voiced Spidey again in the mobile game Spider-Man: Unlimited, an endless runner.

But in 2018, Yuri Lowenthal finally got the Spider-Man-related break he truly deserved. After working with Insomniac on Sunset Overdrive, Lowenthal was asked to audition for Marvel's Spider-Man, and upon earning the role, Lowenthal proceeded to deliver what's widely regarded as one of the best Spider-Man performances ever, managing to strike that aforementioned balance between Spidey and Peter Parker perfectly.

In the years since Marvel's Spider-Man release, Yuri Lowenthal has essentially become the go-to choice for the role, appearing in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 , Marvel's Midnight Suns , and even appearing as a cameo voice in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse .

Yuri Lowenthal Returns in Marvel Rivals

Announced just a few weeks ago, Marvel Rivals is an Overwatch-like hero shooter that puts teams of six iconic Marvel heroes and villains against one another. Though not too much has been revealed about the game, Marvel Rivals' announcement trailer did confirm that Yuri Lowenthal would be returning as Spider-Man once again. Though it's currently unclear how much Spider-Man will talk in Marvel Rivals, it's great to see Yuri Lowenthal continue to cement his place as the quintessential Spider-Man voice actor.