While the recent trailer for Marvel’s Wolverine included an appearance by Jean Grey, creative director Marcus Smith has revealed that the X-Men don’t exist in the game as a group. In an interview with Eurogamer, Smith spoke about the story of Marvel’s Wolverine and how the studio wanted to focus on Logan as the main character.
To take advantage of this focus, the story essentially revolves around the fact that mutants are still quite obscure for the world at large. This also means that mutants will face plenty of discrimination, especially at the hands of people who don’t know about them and want them to not exist.
“The important thing, I guess, is the X-Men don’t exist in our game,” he said. “We wanted to focus on a Wolverine storyline and really build it from that character and build a world that is in a state where mutants aren’t well known. They are known; they’re falling victim to people who do know about them and want to destroy them.”
Despite X-Men not showing up as a group in the story, Marvel’s Wolverine will still feature plenty of cameos from superheroes that have typically worked with, or against, Logan. This includes Jean Grey and Sabretooth, both of whom will feature to some extent in Marvel’s Wolverine.
“So, at the very beginning of the game, Logan actually belongs on a team called Team X, and he has teamed up with Sabretooth, who you see in the gameplay trailer,” said Smith. “But there are no X-Men. There will be a lot of Marvel characters that come into the storyline; so, we’ve already shown Mystique in the earlier trailer, we’ve shown Sabretooth, Jean Grey in this one, and players can expect to have a lot more throughout the game.”
Smith also went on to confirm that Marvel’s Wolverine takes place in the same universe at Marvel’s Spider-Man. However, the studio didn’t want to divert attention away from Logan. As such, any appearance by Spider-Man “will be some Easter-eggy sort of overlap,” Smith explained, “but there is no crossover between Spider-Man and Wolverine.”
On the gameplay side of things, director Mike Daily explained that Jean Grey has been designed to be an “important supplement” to Logan’s own abilities when the two have to team up together to manage enemies. Even outside of combat, Grey can help Logan out when he’s simply sneaking around, thanks to her telepathic powers.
“Even outside of these moments, though, she’s a capable combatant who can defend herself and take out enemies independently on the battlefield,” said Daly, “and as you go through the course of the game, Logan and Jean will team up more times. In stealth, in particular, you’ll be able to take advantage of some coordination between the two of you, using her telepathy to influence enemies.”
Sabretooth, on the other hand, has what has been described by Daly as “a little bit of a contentious relationship” with Logan. In gameplay, this relationship can be seen through the banter between the two characters.
“It’s fun to see them playing off of each other,” he said. “It’s almost a competitive spirit. Jean might use her telekinesis to open up an enemy to help you take them down [but] when you’re fighting with Sabretooth, it’s more like you thought you got the kill and he snatches it right out of your hands just to deny you the pleasure. It’s a different dynamic.”
Marvel’s Wolverine is being developed exclusively for the PS5, and is slated for release on September 15th. For more details, take a look at its various accessibility features, as well as how it will feature comic book-style pacing.
