Ahead of Sony’s State of Play broadcast, I had the chance to interview Insomniac about all things Marvel’s Wolverine. Check out the interview in full to find out exactly how the game plays and what to expect, but there are a few features worth digging into separately: one, Spider-Man is not in the game, and two, Wolverine actually teams up with a surprising character.
Let’s start with the Spider-Man question. While Marvel’s Wolverine and Marvel’s Spider-Man take place in the same Marvel universe (Insomniac has a Marvel universe all to itself, numbered 1048), just as Wolverine isn’t in Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, neither is Spider-Man in Wolverine.
“It’s correct that it does take place in the 1048 Marvel Universe, which is the Insomniac video game universe. It happens in the same world, but we don’t have any crossover. Spider-Man will not be making an appearance in Wolverine,” creative director Marcus Smith told IGN, definitively.
So, no Wolverine / Spider-Man teamup. But Wolverine does team up with some other characters more familiar to the X-Men comics. In the gameplay trailer we see Wolverine and Jean Grey battle bad guys, each setting up enemies for co-op takedowns. But Insomniac told IGN that Wolverine also teams up with Sabretooth, one of his arch nemesis.
That’s certainly surprising — you’d think the last person Wolverine would want to work together with is Sabretooth. But, as game director Mike Daly told IGN, it’s less that the two work together, and more that they are fighting against a common enemy next to each other.
“In this game, Logan and Sabretooth are actually on a team together, but the way they ally is not really anything like the way you ally with Jean Gray,” Daly said. “Logan and Sabretooth have a very competitive dynamic between them. Whereas Jean Gray might give you an opportunity to get a kill, with Sabretooth fighting alongside you, it’s more like, you think you’ve got a kill and he rushes in to steal it from you, and their combat banter brings out that dynamic and makes the whole fight more fun.”
Related to this co-op mechanic is the question of whether you play as any guest characters in Marvel’s Wolverine. The Spider-Man games feature sequences where you play as other characters. There’s a memorable sequence where you get to play as Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, for example. You also have sections where you play as MJ.
However, in Marvel’s Wolverine, you play as Wolverine only. There are no side quests or missions where you play as another character. “This game is all about Wolverine and you play Wolverine the whole way through,” Daly said. “We wanted to keep the focus on him throughout the whole story.”
We have plenty more on Marvel’s Wolverine at the interview in full. It’s due out exclusively on PS5 on September 15, 2026. And here’s everything announced at State of Play June 2026 if you need a catch up on what PlayStation has in store.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
