Marvel’s Wolverine is getting his own game. The title was announced way back in 2021 at the PlayStation Showcase and comes from superhero veterans Insomniac Games.
Insomniac, the studio behind much-beloved Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales is turning their talents towards crafting a new adventure for everyone’s favorite adamantium-reenforced mutant. Though we don’t have too many details available as of yet, Insomniac has said in a PlayStation Blog (opens in new tab) post that it wants to “respect the DNA of what makes the character so popular” while looking “for opportunities to make it feel fresh and truly reflect the Insomniac spirit”.
As with their previous titles, Marvel’s Wolverine is likely to be a PlayStation exclusive, but it may well follow in the footsteps of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games by getting a PC port sometime down the line. In the meantime, we’re very keen to see where Insomniac takes this classic Marvel character. To that end, we’ve hunted high and low for every morsel of information on this upcoming title. Read on to find out more.
Marvel’s Wolverine: cut to the chase
- What is it? A Wolverine game from the makers of Marvel’s Spider-Man
- When can I play it? TBC
- What can I play it on? PS5
Marvel’s Wolverine release date and platforms
Marvel’s Wolverine game currently doesn’t have a release date and, unfortunately, it will likely be a while before we get our claws on it. Insomniac Games stated that the game is in “very early development” when it was announced in late 2021 so we wouldn’t expect to see it until at least late 2023 – especially given that Insomniac Games is currently working on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which is due for release in the latter half of 2023.
Interestingly, Microsoft has claimed that Sony will release Marvel’s Wolverine in 2023. In a document responding to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority’s decision to further investigate the company’s proposed acquisition of Activision (via Tech4Gamers (opens in new tab)), Microsoft made its case for why the acquisition should go ahead. In doing so, it laid out Sony’s release plans for 2023, stating: “PlayStation also has a spate of first- and third-party exclusive titles lined up for launch in 2023, including Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, Horizon, Final Fantasy 16 and Forspoken“.
All of these games have been confirmed to release in 2023, bar Wolverine. it’s unclear if this is speculation on Microsoft’s part, or if the company knows something we don’t, but it could suggest Marvel’s Wolverine will release earlier than expected.
Marvel’s Wolverine is set to be a PS5 console exclusive, much like Spider-Man, so it won’t be available to Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. This shouldn’t be too surprising, given how Sony acquired Insomniac Games back in 2019. It’s also skipping last-gen consoles, so PS4 owners are also out of luck.
However, there’s a good chance it’ll arrive on PC., since Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales both released on the platform, albeit well after their initial launches on Sony’s home consoles.
Marvel’s Wolverine trailer
Latest Trailer
Marvel’s Wolverine was announced during Sony’s PlayStation Showcase in September 2021, with a brief teaser trailer giving us our first look at Insomniac’s take on Logan.
The teaser trailer shows a destroyed bar, with injured men lying on the floor, before cutting to a back view of a man in a cowboy hat and checkered shirt drinking at the bar – his knuckles and surrounding area covered in blood. In the background, we see one of the injured men getting up and pulling out a knife. Sensing the assailant, the man at the bar, the man at the bar clenches his fist, resulting in long metallic claws appearing from them. Yep, it’s Wolverine.
The trailer may not give us a look at gameplay or at Logan himself, but it does set the tone of Marvel’s Wolverine – which at first glance appears to be a more bloody, mature alternative to Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man series. You can check out the trailer below:
More trailers
So far, the reveal trailer is the only preview we currently have access to. In the meantime, we recommend keeping your eyes on PlayStation’s official Youtube Channel (opens in new tab) for any future updates.
Marvel’s Wolverine story and setting
Though we don’t yet have any concrete details as to what to expect from Marvel’s Wolverine, the reveal trailer does offer several Easter eggs which offer some interesting hits.
Firstly, the trailer’s setting seems to drop a big clue about when and where Marvel’s Wolverine is set. Logan is drinking in the Princess Bar, located in Madripoor (which you may recognize from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), which we see from the bar sign and the Madipoor tourist poster.
In Marvel Comics Presents Volume 1 #1 (1988), Wolverine visits the Princess Bar while hunting down a crime lord called Roche. After wiping the bar floor with Roche’s enforcers – who are trying to get protection money off the bar’s owner O’Donnell – Wolverine becomes a regular of the bar, under the name “Patch”, and even co-owned it for a time. The bar was essentially Logan’s home-away-from-home during a period when the X-Men were inactive. Is Insomniac Games hinting that this is the time period Marvel’s wolverine is set to take place in? Will we see Logan taking on the criminal underworld?
Another possible Easter Egg is the Radio Lowtown 104.8 poster. Lowtown is a district in Madipoor, so Madipoor as a setting seems pretty likely. But the 104.8 seems to reference Marvel Earth-1048, the universe in which Marvel’s Spider-Man is set. This seems to suggest that Insomniac’s Spider-Man games and Wolverine take place in the same universe, meaning we could see a Marvel Game Universe in the making.
But the Radio station isn’t the only number that appears to reference a specific comic book. The license plate on the bar reads “HLK 181”, which seems to reference The Incredible Hulk #18 – in which Wolverine makes an appearance. Does that mean we could see Hulk in Marvel’s Wolverine? Again, we certainly hope so.
Marvel’s Wolverine news
A “full-size” game with a “mature tone”
According to Marvel’s Wolverine‘s Creative Director, Brian Horton, James ‘Logan’ Howlett’s standalone adventure on PS5 will be a full-size game with a “mature tone”. Horton confirmed this in response to a fan on Twitter (opens in new tab) asking whether Wolverine on PS5 will be “big or a ‘miles morales’ size game”.
Being directed by Spider-Man: Miles Morales creative leads
In a PlayStation Blog post (opens in new tab), Insomniac Games revealed that Marvel’s Wolverine is being directed by Brian Horton (creative director) and Cameron Christian (game director), who led the creative efforts on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Respecting the DNA, with a fresh take
Insomniac Games has said that, while it intends to honor the “DNA” of what makes Wolverine popular, it will be putting its own fresh spin on Weapon X.
“In the vein of our Spider-Man games, our goal here is to not only respect the DNA of what makes the character so popular, but also look for opportunities to make it feel fresh and truly reflect the Insomniac spirit,” Insomniac Games wrote in a PlayStation blog post. According to the developer, despite being in early development, Marvel’s Wolverine boasts an “emotional narrative and cutting-edge gameplay”.
Marvel’s Wolverine: what we want to see
Embracing Wolverine’s dark side
While Marvel’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales are critically acclaimed, there’s no denying they’re pretty family-friendly at times. After all, Spider-Man himself is your “friendly neighborhood Spidey”. But Wolverine isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, his backstory and character are, comparatively speaking, pretty dark.
We’re hoping that Insomniac explores that side of Logan in the Wolverine game, offering a more mature experience than Spider-Man did. We’re not asking for gratuitous violence but, to really dig into Wolverine’s backstory (depending on when this game is set), you can’t shy away from the darker moments. Also, you can’t slash up enemies without a bit of bloodshed.
The appearance of other Marvel heroes…
We don’t want them hogging the spotlight, but it would be nice to see Insomniac’s take on some other Marvel heroes popping up in the Wolverine game as side characters. The specifics would really depend on the story Insomniac wants to tell, but we’re hoping to see some of the X-Men make cameos, including Jean Grey, Professor X, or maybe even Rogue.
…and infamous villains
We currently don’t know who will serve as the main adversary in Marvel’s Wolverine, but there are plenty of infamous villains to choose from – and we imagine some could appear as smaller roles. We’re hoping we could see Logan battling Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike, or even Silver Samurai. Or perhaps we’ll see him simply battling to bring down the Weapon X program that saw him subjected to painful experiments.
A Marvel Game Universe
With Insomniac Games now working on another Marvel title for PS5, we’re hoping that we could see a Marvel Game Universe in the future.
In our opinion, it could work pretty well. Like with the MCU, Insomniac has created standalone products allowing us to get to know individual superheroes within its universe, if we continue to see more Marvel heroes getting their own games, could we potentially see crossovers in the future? We’re hoping so, since Crystal Dynamic’s Marvel’s Avengers certainly left a lot to be desired.
