An actor who once played a villain in X2 is heading back to the X-Men fold, this time as a brand-new character debuting next month. This casting lines up with a bigger moment for the Marvel franchise: the original Fox stars are reuniting for Avengers: Doomsday, X-Men '97 Season 2 just wrapped up, and a new X-Men film is actively being cast. Now, following in the footsteps of Spider-Man, the X-Men side of Marvel is exploring a new medium, set to release on September 15.
Insomniac has cast Tyger Tiger (Kelly Hu) in Marvel's Wolverine, and it's a switch from the X-Men role she's best known for: Lady Deathstrike in X2: X-Men United, according to Entertainment Weekly.
It's a bit of an odd casting, as Lady Deathstrike herself is in the game, but a pretty cool connection underneath it: Insomniac has spent the last several years building its reputation on Spider-Man, and now one of its own X-Men alumni is stepping into the fresh role.
Eric Monacelli, executive producer at Marvel Games, told EW the casting came together early in development, "a little while after Miles Morales."
He said Hu playing Lady Deathstrike again "didn't make as much sense" given her age, but Tyger Tiger was a character the team "wanted to really, really have someone that grounded it."
That old role didn't end well for Hu's character anyway. Lady Deathstrike died in X2 after Wolverine jammed a needle of molten adamantium into her during their fight, destroying her healing factor.
Tyger Tiger has never shown up in an X-Men or Wolverine movie before, but she's a longtime Marvel Comics staple: really Jessan Hoan, a Harvard-educated banker turned Madripoor crime lord who became one of Wolverine's closest allies during his "Patch" days, a version of Logan shown in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine.
When it comes to what this character's role couild be in the video game, look no further than Madripoor. This iconic location will be a hub in Marvel's Wolverine, not just a cameo setting, with Tyger Tiger's Princess Bar serving as what Monacelli calls "the Madripoorian anchor" and "a major, major touchstone" for the story.
The Hu news arrives alongside a bigger wave of Marvel's Wolverine coverage. Many outlets have now gone hands-on with a demo built around an opening mission with Team X and a boss fight against a Sentinel Prototype, and early impressions show rage-fueled combat with a tiered meter that unlocks increasingly savage takedowns.
Hu's return to the X-Men is a welcome one, though it will look a lot different than her 2003 film appearance.
New footage and details keep trickling out ahead of the September 15 release, following past reporting that Insomniac scrapped the multiple-playable-character format from its Spider-Man games to keep the story locked on Logan alone. So don't expect to be playing as Tyger Tiger anytime soon.
How Could Insomniac's Wolverine Impact the X-Men?
Insomniac's Spider-Man proved that a hit game can leave a major cinematic impact, and Marvel's Wolverine has a real shot at doing the same for the X-Men.
The first Spider-Man launched in 2018, and its fingerprints were already showing up by 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home. That influence has only grown since, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day leans on the games heavily, especially in how Spidey moves and finishes fights.
The timing lines up, too. The rebooted X-Men are still coming together under director Jake Schreier, with Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), Emma Frost (Samara Weaving), and Scott Summers/Cyclops (Kit Connor) set so far, and the film isn't expected until 2028, roughly two years after Marvel's Wolverine launches.
Whether a new Logan actor actually replaces Hugh Jackman anytime soon is still unclear, but the game won't be short on other X-Men to lean on regardless. Jean Grey is Logan's key ally in Wolverine, with Mystique and Sabretooth also playing prominent roles.
In a timeline post-Secret Wars, the MCU will need to map out the icon locations, costumes, and abilities of the X-Men again, and dipping their creative brush into the canvas of Marvel's Wolverine could be a place to start.
