Insomniac Games’ latest twist on our favorite superheroes might be releasing in a month, on September 15, 2026. But as it turns out, Marvel’s Wolverine had to ‘cut a lot’ of content like gameplay and characters throughout its development. That’s according to a Reddit post combing through ‘3 years worth of Zoom meetings’ from the 2023 Insomniac data breach.
Apparently, Insomniac had to sacrifice much of Wolverine‘s combat. An early version of the game reportedly used both triggers for Logan’s left and right arm attack moves, complete with DualSense’s adaptive trigger compatibility. A half-press would perform quick jabs, while pressing the trigger all the way would unleash a sweeping attack. This unique combat mechanic is said to have gone through roughly two years of iterations and tweaks — even getting decent feedback from QA testers.
However, ‘accessibility, responsiveness, and scope’ issues forced the studio to scrap it. Insomniac then went with the more action-game standard of light-heavy attacks using face buttons. But that’s not the only combat mechanic that got axed.
There were plans for letting players throw back projectiles like The Hand ninja’s shurikens that are lodged in Logan’s body. Logan was also supposed to fight using a wrist-mounted crossbow ‘with different arrow types,’ alongside a crafting system. Marvel, though, rejected it because it reportedly ‘didn’t fit’ Wolverine’s character.
A Metal Gear Revengeance-style ‘Cut Anything’ system was on the table as well, allowing players to cause ‘chain reaction destruction.’ For example, slicing a wall open to expose a bursting pipe or electric cable could trigger environmental hazards. Insomniac also threw around the idea of ‘ fully destructible buildings’ similar to Battlefield‘s Levolution but it was never prototyped.
Nightcrawler was originally planned as the ally NPC for the Madripoor level, but Marvel had another opinion. It was thought that having such a major character didn’t feel ‘earned’ as a sidekick; one that appears only in one zone, no less. He was replaced by Jubilee at some point, who was eventually cut too for Tyger Tiger. A snowy Russian level was also switched to Canada after developers raised concerns amid the escalating Russo-Ukrainian war.
The opening mission was changed several times as well. The first version had Team X rescuing a random mutant, followed by a build that involves Jean Grey. Now, the release build of Marvel’s Wolverine seems to feature Nathaniel Essex — also known as one of X-Men’s archenemies, Mister Sinister. Marvel then ‘kept pushing’ for more story revisions, including tweaks on Nathaniel’s motivation and the ending.
Still, it’s worth remembering that cut content isn’t necessarily a sign that Marvel’s Wolverine is in trouble. Content always gets changed, moved around, or got rid of constantly during game development. Anything can affect big projects like games, from budget cuts and time constraints to organizational shake-ups. Especially the resource-intensive Cut Anything gameplay that sounds too big a scope to implement in the game.
Not all early game ideas disappeared or changed for the worse, either. Early playtests had testers just mash buttons against basic enemies, but Insomniac reportedly managed to make them ‘engaging’ and interesting to fight. The motorcycle section was also one of ‘many ideas’ prototyped during an internal game jam that thankfully saw the light of day.
What we see now, close to the release date, seems to follow Marvel’s Wolverine former director Brian Horton’s philosophy. “Engagement comes first and power fantasy can come second,” he said in the leak documents.
