I had a certain expectation when it was time to go and meet the new Wolverine. As a lifelong fan of the character, with the gruff and leather-clad Logans of Hugh Jackman and Cal Dodd seared into my mind, I was expecting something similar from Liam McIntyre, the star of the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine for PS5. Maybe he’d shatter my hand with an adamantium-reinforced handshake, then stare me down from across the table as he lit a cigar and proceeded to give me as much charm as he’d give grime on his motorcycle.
Luckily, that’s not even remotely close to what happened when I sat down with him and Jess Reiner-Reed, Senior Project Director at Insomniac Games, at PlayStation’s Sydney office. McIntyre looked the part in a leather jacket, but he was all smiles as we got to chatting about Insomniac’s return to the Marvel Universe, sans New York City web-slingers.
First things first. McIntyre knows that there are two very large, very Australian shoes (and six very sharp claws) to fill when stepping into the role of Logan, aka Wolverine.
“For generations, Wolverine has been the person who’s led the way in this character for decades now”, he explains. “Hugh [Jackman] is incredible.”
Jackman has been the face of Wolverine for 26 years, and his portrayal was one of many that McIntyre studied for his own Logan. “I get decades of Wolverine to draw on. I get comic books from [Chris] Claremont through to today.”
This new version is one that surprised me when I got hands-on with the game the following week. McIntyre himself had told me days prior that his Logan is an “earthly, complex character,” and that shows with an unexpected warmth beneath the sharp edges. Insomniac’s Logan is a man who “doesn’t like the weapon that he becomes,” and is actively looking for a key to unlock his forgotten lives.
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That key might just be a certain redheaded mutant who would usually be betrothed to another X-Man, but this is a universe of its own — one without the X-Men. When Marvel’s Wolverine begins, the once-feral Logan is recruited into Team X, a squad of mutant operatives fighting a war with would-be mutant exterminator, Bolivar Trask. That team acts as a found family for Logan, where he’s joined by Sabretooth (Brett Gipson), Mystique (Nicole Pacent) and Nathaniel Essex (Troy Baker). If you know your X-Men, that’s one hell of a lineup.
During the game’s first act, Logan’s path crosses with none other than Jean Grey (Krizia Bajos). A central pillar of what Jess Reiner-Reed described as an “emotionally charged narrative, where Logan does have this very human side of him: this relationship with Jean Grey. And I think that’s the part that Liam brought, the humanity of Logan and not a fake caricature.”
As McIntyre put it, “Logan does feel like there’s something better inside of him, something that he can aspire to. And when he meets Jean, he finds someone that maybe can help him unlock that.”
That great unknown of his identity helps drive the game’s 12-hour runtime, one that, after a somewhat slow-paced first act; snowballs into one of the more compelling Wolverine stories I’ve seen since the once-finale for Jackman in 2017’s Logan.
Rest assured that the emotional core doesn’t detract from the gruff exterior of Marvel’s rage-filled murder machine. McIntyre told me he prepared “a suite of yells” to bring to the mo-cap stage. And plenty of grunts. “If you want grunts, we have got grunts for you. Screams and grunts. We got it covered. If that’s what you’ve come for, you will not leave disappointed.”
“I feel like Insomniac takes a really interesting…it’s very Wolverine, but it’s a really interesting direction to take the story, and the journey that we go on is really cool,” McIntyre adds. “But yeah, as an actor, I really loved bringing that fury, that animalistic nature, it’s very cathartic.”
Coming from the Spider-Man trilogy, Insomniac knew Logan would take them to bloodier, darker places, and that possibility was thrilling for the entire team. Firstly, Reiner-Reed points out one obvious difference: “Yeah, Wolverine can kill enemies. So it’s a big difference… I remember working on Spider-Man; it was really important for us to make sure that Spider-Man never kills enemies. They always get webbed to the side of the building. When you’re playing Wolverine, you hold [the square button], and you can kick a dude right off the edge of a cliff.”
Emotional narratives aren’t new ground for Insomniac, and while this story goes dark, the unfamiliar aspects were largely technical. Reiner-Reed outlined fresh challenges heading into Wolverine included destruction physics, realistic blood effects, and animating Logan’s teeth and body hair. The little things might seem inconsequential, but Logan’s claws demand he closes the gap – and the camera must follow. “Our cameras are a lot closer than in Spider-Man; it’s a lot more intimate and visceral.”
Near the end of our interview, McIntyre hinted that even longtime fans of the character will be surprised in their play-through. “There’s some stuff in this game that I just never thought we’d get to do with Wolverine that I love so much, and I think makes the character so interesting.
“So I’m really excited for when people get to truly experience that and the fullness of that, and I’m looking forward to seeing what people think of what we made. It’s exciting. Scary. But exciting.”
Marvel’s Wolverine releases for PS5 today (September 15th).
