As Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 continues to swing to great hype, Insomniac Games has teased an exciting update for its next adventure. Marvel’s Wolverine will take place in the same universe as the studio’s Spider-Man games, with creative director Bryan Intihar confirming the Earth-1048 setting for both.
“They are all 1048. I think I got that right,” said Intihar in a podcast interview with Kinda Funny, referring to the Marvel designation for the universe the superhero titles are all set in. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was previously revealed to be universe 1048 in Across the Spider-Verse, and while there’s at least one minor reference to Wolverine in the former, leaving out major Easter eggs to set up the upcoming game was intentional.
“We wouldn’t be true Marvel fans if we didn’t have discussions like that, but I think for us it was, ‘Hey, working on these games is really hard. They’re really complicated.’ And I think it was just like, ‘Hey, let’s let the Wolverine team cook.’ Let’s let them cook and if something ever happens in the future, great,” Intihar said.
“But right, now let’s just make sure that let’s not box anybody into a corner and let’s just make sure that they have a clear runway to make the best Wolverine possible and it’s going to be awesome. So I’m really excited about it. But we wouldn’t be like Marvel fans if we didn’t talk about things.”
The news is certainly interesting, because there hasn’t been much effort to weave all the recent high-profile Marvel games into a singular continuity, unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Perhaps that’s for the best, since it can really put a toll on storytelling, but if there’s anyone who has the capability to introduce a shared universe, it’s Insomniac Games.
After all, the studio has yet to disappoint in any of its superhero outings — Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sold 2.5 million copies in a day to become the fastest PlayStation Studios title to date — and with Wolverine and Spider-Man under its belt, it’s in a very good position to expand and build on both worlds.
Marvel’s Wolverine was first announced in 2021 with a brief teaser trailer. Not much else is known about it, but it’ll feature “cutting-edge gameplay”, an “emotional narrative”, and a mature rating. A release window has yet to be announced.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
