We go for almost 15 years without any mutants in the MCU, and suddenly it’s like you can’t swing a Flerken (not a good idea, by the way) without hitting one. Specifically, although the occasional original mutant character like Ms. Marvel or Namor are being introduced, Marvel is mostly interested in bringing back old X-Men.
First, Patrick Stewart’s Professor was in Doctor Strange 2 and the Kelsey Grammer’s Beast just returned for The Marvels‘ post-credits scene. 2024’s Deadpool 3 will not only continue the trend but increase it tenfold, by bringing back Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and likely many more, if you believe even some of the casting rumors.
And yet some new leaks reveal that yet another popular veteran of the 20th Century Fox X-Men canon is returning to the wider Marvel multiverse.
One of the X-Men’s most memorable villains is returning to the franchise over 20 years later
As you may have heard, Insomniac Games has been hit by a data hack on an unprecedented scale, with everything from staff members’ personal details to Sony’s plans for the future of Spider-Man games leaking online. While this is a serious crime, the one upside to this security breach is that it has made us even more excited for what Insomniac has planned, including 2024’s much-anticipated Marvel’s Wolverine.
As part of the leak, the full cast for the Wolverine game — which we now know will lead into a later Marvel’s X-Men game, planned for 2030 — has been outed. The cast includes many talented voice actors as familiar characters, such as Liam McIntyre (Logan), Krizia Bajos (Jean Grey), Nicole Pacent (Mystique), Brett Gipson (Sabretooth), Debra Wilson (Callisto), and Raphael Korkhill (Omega Red).
For long-term X-Men fans, however, one name leaps out above the rest. Kelly Hu is on board Marvel’s Wolverine, which is coming out a full 12 years since she played Lady Deathstrike in X2. Interestingly, Hu is not reprising her role, even though Deathstrike is actually in the game, as played by Jolean Kim. Instead Hu will be portraying Tyger Tiger, the owner of the Princess Bar, a mutant drinking hole in Madripoor, and the wife of Mystique.
Presumably, this return is confined to the gaming realm, but no one would likely complain if Hu did make a big-screen return to the world of the X-Men in Deadpool 3 or beyond.
