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More than 25 years after Hugh Jackman first portrayed the character, another Australian actor is stepping into the yellow armour of one of Marvel’s most violent and most popular heroes.
Liam McIntyre, 44, stars in Sony’s upcoming video game Marvel’s Wolverine, developed by Insomniac Games, creators of three highly acclaimed Spider-Man games.
This new take on the character is bloody and action-packed, but has a complex emotional narrative at its core.
Set in a world where the X-Men don’t exist, and few people are even aware there are super-powered mutants among them, the game puts Logan — a practically indestructible mutant with retractable claws, traumatised by flashes of a past he can’t remember — in a power struggle between human and mutant factions who each want to eradicate the other’s species.
While there’s plenty of screaming and growling from McIntyre, his portrayal is more grounded and open than most. Still, as the character remains canonically Canadian, it begs the question; why do we keep seeing Australians in the role?
“Australians don’t have a lot of self-importance. Tall poppy syndrome, help your mates out, that sort of thing,” said Mcintyre, in Melbourne to promote the game.
“Wolverine is an unassuming, get-things-done kind of gruff, rugged [character]. I think his ethos aligns with what a lot of Australians view as some of the best qualities about ourselves. Maybe through that worldview, Australians are like, ‘I kind of think I get this guy’.”
Despite Wolverine being a mutant, many stories feature him as a relatable, sympathetic character constantly under pressure. His abilities give him a responsibility to help people, but his powers also make him a liability. His lethality and animal-like instincts frequently open him up to manipulation from villains, and he’s only too aware of the possibility he could hurt the people he cares about.
In the game, Logan leaps around the screen tearing enemies apart, with consecutive kills filling a rage meter that unlocks even quicker and more violent attacks, and lets him shrug off damage. But we also see the character in quieter situations, struggling to understand his purpose.
“A lot of superheroes have special powers, they’re doing special things and saving people, whereas it’s almost a burden for Logan. He’s most useful when he’s a weapon, that’s when he can enact the most change. But the way that he enacts that change takes a heavy toll on him,” McIntyre said.
“He’s not necessarily excited to go out and save the world. He doesn’t want fanfare. He doesn’t want to get his name up in lights as a hero.”
McIntyre, born in Adelaide, has been based in the US since he was cast in the lead role of the Spartacus TV series in 2012. Since then, he’s had brushes with super-heroism in The Flash TV show and an animated Justice League feature, and he’s had success in video games as JD Fenix in the Gears of War series. But his latest role feels particularly special because he’s a long-time fan of Wolverine, and he’s still adjusting to seeing his face on the character.
At a preview event for the game at Marvel Stadium, the signboards and screens around the ground were all lit up with promotional images of the character. Sony has introduced special edition PlayStation 5 consoles with Wolverine printed on them. And at Disney’s recent D23 event in California, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige introduced a look at the game on stage.
“He pointed straight at my face! He might not have known that, but I mean, even tangentially, that’s just the wildest,” McIntyre said.
