UPDATE 9/10: The reviews are in, and IGN went 6 out of 10 — but the critics’ complaints aren’t the ones from this trailer fight.
UPDATE 9/8: Insomniac has confirmed the trailer’s sword-wielding villain is Lady Deathstrike, not Psylocke — and a viral claim about the game’s mocap traces back to a reviewer’s studio visit.
Marvel’s Wolverine opened Sony’s September State of Play with its launch trailer Thursday, twelve days before the game arrives, and pulled 1.1 million views in its first 13 hours.
It also pulled two backlashes at once. One is about the faces. The other is still about the discs.
The trailer sits at 33,000 likes against 7,000 dislikes on PlayStation’s channel, and the loudest reactions on X aren’t about Sentinels or Omega Red.
UPDATE 9/4: Jean Grey’s full design history, from the hack leaks to the launch trailer backlash.
“I Tried Hard To Find ONE Female Character”
The post leading the pile-on comes from Grummz, aka Mark Kern, the former World of Warcraft team lead and Diablo 2 and StarCraft producer. His reaction sits at 4,900 likes and 84,000 views.
“Oh come on… Wolverine State of Play trailer,” he wrote. “Yeah, no lessons learned here. I tried hard to find ONE female character that didn’t get hit with the AAA ugly stick.”
Grummz continued, “Total fail, none found. Nobody wants this in their game.”
The post carries a side-by-side of three faces pulled from the trailer: Jean Grey, Mystique, and Lady Deathstrike.
The replies ran with it.
“Gamers do not even want them all to be dressed like prostitutes,” wrote one. “They just want them to be pretty and have a nice personality. Triple-A gives them all mean_noble_lady_looking_down_on_peasants personality and looks.”
Grummz answered: “I just posted the faces, you don’t even want to see the rest.”
Another viral post put the trailer into the Drake meme format. “This meme never fails. Western developers: makes ugly, masculine, unattractive females. Eastern developers: makes beautiful, feminine, attractive females.”
Grummz Said The Same Thing In 2024
“No lessons learned” is a callback, and Grummz has the receipts on this one.
Back in June 2024, after the Insomniac hack put early Marvel’s Wolverine material online, Grummz ran a viral thread comparing the leaked early Jean Grey model to the newer version, writing that she went from beautiful to “grocery store auntie.”
That same thread flagged Sweet Baby Inc.’s involvement with the game, the consulting firm also attached to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
When Jean Grey’s finished in-game look debuted at June’s State of Play, the footage read like a cleaner pass on the character, and some of the criticism cooled.
The launch trailer brought it right back.
The Disc Protest Never Left
Meanwhile, the YouTube comments belong to the same crowd that’s been there since July.
“We’re not forgetting about the disks Playstation” has 519 likes. “Physical discs, here we go!” has 946. “He’s launching himself at a disc to save it” has 424.
The top timestamp comment, at 1,700 likes, turns Sony’s own slogan around: “1:20 Play has limits.”
It’s the same protest that hijacked the story trailer in July over Sony’s decision to stop manufacturing physical games.
Every trailer since has doubled as a protest stage, and the launch trailer is no exception.
Twelve Days Out
The design fight lands on a studio already feeling the heat. Insomniac’s last release was Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, a critical hit that sold huge but split its own fanbase in a way the first game never did, and some of that audience came into Wolverine season with claws out.
Two weeks ago, Insomniac community boss James Stevenson called the negativity around the game “a relentless onslaught” that he can’t believe is good for anyone’s mental health.
None of it has dented the numbers. Wolverine remains one of the biggest pre-orders in the country, trailing only GTA 6 and NBA 2K27 on the PlayStation Store.
Reviews hit September 10. Marvel’s Wolverine launches September 15, exclusively on PS5.
Twelve days from now, the arguing stops and the playing starts.
