Marvel’s Wolverine: wounds and the past

Some characters need only a sound to be recognised.

For Wolverine, it is the sound of claws springing from the backs of his hands.

As a kid looking at Logan, the easiest thing to love was probably his sheer stubbornness: knocked down, he got back up, scowling, barely bothering to speak before throwing himself into a fight. A little older, that appeal gains another layer. How much must someone who can endure so much have carried with him to become that way?

That is also what makes this return worth waiting for.

Marvel’s Wolverine is developed by Insomniac Games in collaboration with Marvel Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, with a planned release on 15 September 2026 for PS5. It is a single-player, story-focused action adventure. PlayStation confirms that it is not open world and has no PS4 version. A journey with a clearly guided pace lies ahead, with Logan at its centre.

Insomniac begins the story after Logan's skeleton has already been coated with adamantium. In a conversation relayed by GamesRadar+, creative director Marcus Smith explains that they are not retelling the origin story. Logan does not fully remember how it happened, but the game does not spend its opening walking players through every step that turned him into Wolverine.

You meet someone who already has a past. The problem is that he does not have a complete grasp of that past himself.

According to the official introduction, three years after leaving Team X, Logan returns to the team during a crisis. Bolivar Trask, an industrialist who believes in human superiority, is kidnapping mutants. Wolverine's return is therefore both a rescue mission and a pull back towards relationships he once left unfinished.

In the world Insomniac describes, many people do not yet know mutants exist. Those with unusual abilities must live in hiding, afraid of being hunted. Team X becomes a force protecting their own kind in a situation where there is almost nobody to turn to.

Reading that premise, I find Logan's choices the most intriguing prospect. When people like him are treated as test subjects, how far will he go to stop it? And after each time he lets anger decide for him, what kind of person can he return to being?

The announced cast makes that question even more interesting.

• • Wolverine / James “Logan” Howlett: The protagonist, portrayed by Liam McIntyre. Insomniac emphasises both the ferocity and the pain of someone haunted by the consequences of losing control.
• • Jean Grey: A mutant with telekinetic abilities, introduced as someone stepping up to lead a group of captured mutants. Gameplay has shown Jean fighting alongside Logan and creating opportunities for coordinated finishing moves.
• • Mystique: A shapeshifting member of Team X. PlayStation's hands-on report shows her both on missions and in private conversation with Logan at the Princess Bar.
• • Sabretooth: A Team X companion with a strained relationship with Logan. He frequently needles Wolverine and remains bitter about Logan's departure from the team.
• • Nathaniel Essex: The founder of Team X, who once found Logan feral and without his memories. The introduced opening includes a mission to rescue Essex from Trask.
• • Bolivar Trask: The antagonist behind the capture and study of mutants. The official hands-on report also confirms a confrontation with a Sentinel Prototype, a machine created to detect and destroy them.
• • Omega Red: An enemy already seen in announcements and the hands-on preview. Insomniac introduces him as a vicious opponent Wolverine must face on his journey.
• • Deathstrike / Lady Deathstrike: Confirmed as a major villain in the July 2026 Story Trailer. The trailer also introduces The Hand, a ninja faction with a history tied to Logan that the story will gradually reveal.
• • Tyger Tiger: The owner of the Princess Bar in Madripoor, portrayed by Kelly Hu. The actress who played Lady Deathstrike in X2 returns in a different role.

According to the Entertainment Weekly interview, the game takes place after Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. At this stage, the X-Men have not yet been formed.

In gameplay, the claws are naturally the first thing likely to catch a fan's attention. Landed attacks, parries and kills build Logan's Rage, fuelling his attack power and healing. At the highest Rage tier, the visuals shift into an intense style inspired by the Black, White & Blood comics.

Looking at that design, you can see an intention to put Logan's temperament into the player's actions: close the distance, maintain pressure and keep fighting to hold the advantage. Anger is both strength and something you must learn to use.

Insomniac has also announced Techniques and Adaptations to develop the combat style. Players can equip four Special Techniques at once; Adaptations adjust aspects such as Rage effectiveness or the parry window. Outside combat, Logan uses enhanced senses to find Nightmare Doors, complete challenges, trace memories and collect materials for outfits. The announcement also lists New Game Plus, Mission Replay and Photo Mode, with a note about the day-one update.

The journey takes Wolverine through the Canadian wilderness, Tokyo and Madripoor. For a character who is constantly leaving, those places suggest exactly the feeling of finding somewhere to catch his breath only for the past to catch up.

Insomniac has a behind-the-scenes article about its research trip to Japan that is well worth reading. The team collected photographs and surface data firsthand, observing architecture, materials, weathering and everyday details. They report more than 600 scans and nearly 190,000 photographs. For me, small things such as an old road surface, a wall or a street corner carry their own weight: they help the places Logan walks through look as though they existed before the fight began.

Of course, beautiful graphics and a beloved character are not enough to guarantee a great game.

Early reviews have already offered different perspectives. The Verge likes the focused action, fierce battles and big set pieces, but criticises the exploration and a story short on surprises. TechRadar praises the visuals, performances and appeal of the combat encounters, while finding that the tactical depth does not match the number of systems on offer. These are the views of reviewers who played review builds, not the firsthand experience of this article's writer.

Those views help put expectations in the right place. A spectacular trailer fight may make us want to buy a game; what keeps us there must be how the tenth or twentieth fight feels, and whether the people standing beside Logan make us care.

With Wolverine, I am also waiting for the moments when he retracts his claws.

A conversation in a bar. A reproach from an old teammate. A moment when he realises that the person he just saved is also afraid of him. Those are the situations I hope the game explores, because Logan's strength is always more compelling when it comes with a price.

We may come to the game because we want to control Wolverine. But if Insomniac succeeds, what stays with us in the end will be empathy for Logan.

On 15 September, those claws will spring out again.

This time, are you waiting for ferocious combat, or to discover what remains untold behind Logan's anger?

Information current to 12 September 2026. The story discussion above is limited to the announced premise and characters.