The X-Men are getting love from every corner of the Marvel Universe right now. Big screens around the world will welcome the team back with open arms when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters in December, pitting it against Doctor Doom as he wages war on the multiverse. And then there's the animated series X-Men '97, which has a highly anticipated second season on the way.
The mutant-related project that's capturing the most headlines right now, though, is Insomniac Games' Wolverine, a video game that's providing a much-needed second chance to an X-Men team that struggled out of the gate nearly 20 years ago.
After years and years of development, the studio that brought the world three incredible Spider-Man titles is ready to roll out its next superhero project. Wolverine takes center stage this time around, and his story focuses on his attempt to save mutants across the globe who are being hunted down by mercenaries known as Reavers.
As all the X-Men movies and shows have proven, Logan doesn't work well with others. He prefers to do things his way and doesn't mind if he drops bodies along the way using his adamantium claws. And that's the attitude the hero has at the start of his game's State of Play showcase.
Wolverine doesn't hold back against a pack of goons that's looking to transport a terrified group of mutants. However, help soon arrives in the form of Jean Grey, who uses her telepathic powers to open a path for her furry ally.
A Wolverine and Jean Grey team-up certainly feels like confirmation that the game will feature Insomniac's take on the X-Men. But the studio has already poured water on that fire. In an interview with Variety, Insomniac's creative director, Marcus Smith, revealed the universe Wolverine takes place in doesn't have the X-Men to protect it. Instead, another team is active and offering mutants a helping hand.
"The X-Men are not in our game, and where we do start is Logan has been around for a while. He’s been part of a team called Team X. They’re a group of mutants who go all around the world and save other mutants who are in danger. In our world, mutants aren’t really that well known throughout the world, so they’re mostly in hiding because they’re pretty vulnerable."
Despite having "X" in its name, Team X isn't exactly a household name. And that might be because the underrated comic book group got dealt a bad hand when it made its live-action debut all the way back in 2009.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine Didn't Do Team X Any Favors
Insomniac is far from the first company to pour resources into a Wolverine solo project. Following the end of the original X-Men movie trilogy, 20th Century Fox put X-Men Origins: Wolverine into development, which would tell the story of how the titular hero lost his memory and gained an adamantium skeleton.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine had far from a traditional production, as filming began before a script could be completed due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. Through hard work and determination, Hugh Jackman and Co. wrapped in time to make the movie's May 2009 release date. However, an unfinished copy of the film leaked online in March 2009, throwing everything out of whack and killing hype.
By the time the film finally arrived in theaters, many fans had already heard tales of its lackluster story and bad CGI. That meant there was no path for success for Team X, the group that William Stryker put together at the start of the movie to get his hands on adamantium. Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Blob, and more kicked butt and took names in the first act, but everything fell apart after that.
The reality was that X-Men Origins: Wolverine bit off way more than it could chew by trying to flesh out a new team of mutants and shoehorn in cameos from Cyclops, Emma Frost, Professor X, and Gambit. And the icing on the spoiled cake was what happened to Deadpool in the movie's climax, when he walked on screen with his mouth sewn shut and laser eyes.
Nearly a decade later, Deadpool 2 got to right that wrong by allowing Ryan Reynolds' Merc With a Mouth to travel back in time and put Weapon XI out of his misery. But that same dark cloud has been following Team X around all these years, to the point that many fans don't even realize it exists.
Well, Wolverine is setting the stage for Team X's glorious comeback. Outside of Wolverine, the rest of the roster is a mystery. Insomniac isn't one to oversell and underdeliver, though, so it's fair to expect some familiar faces when Logan assembles his squad in the near future.
Maybe Deadpool even shows up to crack a joke or two. It would be the least Insomniac could do, since many fans thought they spotted him during the showcase, only to learn they had confused a Hand ninja for him.
