Even though he is iconic in his own right, Wolverine is pretty intimately linked to the X-Men as a whole. As such, it is natural for players to wonder how that mutant group will play into Marvel’s Wolverine, especially given the few cameos seen in its two trailers. However, it seems as though this version of James “Logan” Howlett will not link up with that specific legendary band of powerful mutants.
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Creative director Marcus Smith spoke to Variety about the X-Men and revealed that they “do not exist.” He explained how the studio wanted to craft its own story, which led to the decision to excise the X-Men. Wolverine, however, is still part of a group.
“The X-Men are not in our game, and where we do start is Logan has been around for a while,” said Smith. “He’s been part of a team called Team X. They’re a group of mutants who go all around the world and save other mutants who are in danger. In our world, mutants aren’t really that well known throughout the world, so they’re mostly in hiding because they’re pretty vulnerable. In our trailer that we set up, Logan is hunting down some mutants who’ve been kidnapped by cybernetically enhanced mercenaries called the Reavers, and that’s when he discovers there’s yet another mutant who is also trying to save them, and that’s where he and Jean [Grey] cross paths.”
Marvel’s Wolverine Has Its Own Team
Team X might not be as known as the X-Men, but it still a concept established elsewhere and even popped up in the universally panned 2009 film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It’s a CIA-backed task force that has links to the Weapon Plus program meant to create super-soldiers. Other iterations of Team X have seen characters like Sabretooth, Vole, Maverick, Kestrel, Silver Fox, Mastodon, Major Arthur Barrington, and Wildcat, in addition to Wolverine. This is not to be confused with X-Force, another team with “X” in the title that also sometimes includes Wolverine, which played a comedic role in the 2018 film, Deadpool 2.
Director Mike Daly followed up on Smith’s thoughts and talked to how the studio wanted to focus more on the clawed hero.
“We wanted to bring to life a cast of iconic Marvel characters, but making sure that the story was fully and deeply about Wolverine was the top thing,” said Daly. “So it’s not really about anything else other than telling Logan’s story, and then bringing in the characters that support that and bring it to life.”
The game is called Marvel’s Wolverine, after all, so it makes sense for Insomniac to focus more on a singular character. The three Marvel’s Spider-Man games from the same team also kept it relatively limited to the web-slinger and only dropped references to The Avengers here and there.
Even though the Insomniac isn’t currently talking about the X-Men, a big leak from the studio in late 2023 showed how that might not always be the case. Said leak noted how Insomniac was planning on developing an X-Men game slated for 2030. The slide in question noted Marvel’s Wolverine was planned for late 2026, which, barring a significant delay, seems like it will have been accurate. It’s important to note that plans do change, as the same calendar had a Venom game on it slated for 2025, which did not come to pass (and hasn’t even been announced). Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 and another Ratchet & Clank were both on the leaked calendar, too, for 2028 and 2029, respectively.
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