Entertainment Weekly has revealed that Kelly Hu has joined the cast of Insomniac Games' Wolverine. She previously played the villainous Lady Deathstrike in 2003's X2: X-Men United, where she went claw-to-claw with Hugh Jackman's Logan in one of the movie’s most memorable action scenes.
For Wolverine, however, the actress is taking on a very different role, lending her voice to Tyger Tiger. A crime lord from the pages of Marvel Comics, Tyger Tiger is based in Madripoor, a Southeast Asian island nation long associated with Wolverine. Divided between the wealthy Hightown and impoverished Lowtown, Madripoor has played a major role in many of Logan's comic book adventures.
In Wolverine, Hu's Tyger Tiger is the proprietor of the Princess Bar, Logan's preferred watering hole in Lowtown. According to executive producer Eric Monacelli, the decision to bring Hu back to the X-Men universe came early in the game's production.
"The casting happened when the game first started going into production. So this was a little while after Miles Morales," he explained. "I think part of it was just [Hu] playing Lady Deathstrike, her age and where she was at, didn’t make as much sense. But for the character and Tyger Tiger, it was one of those characters that we wanted to really, really have someone that grounded it."
While Wolverine's new video game adventure will take him to locations including Canada, Japan, and Tacubaya, Madripoor is clearly going to be an important stop along the way. Monacelli describes Tyger Tiger as "the Madripoorian anchor to that world." The Princess Bar itself will also be a significant location, with Monacelli calling it "a major, major touchstone for the game."
"So we wanted the proprietor of the Princess Bar to be somebody that people would potentially connect with," he added. "We take that approach for all the characters."
Hu isn't the only notable actor bringing a Marvel character to life in the game. Troy Baker, best known for playing Joel in The Last of Us, Booker DeWitt in BioShock, and the titular hero in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, voices Nathaniel Essex.
Comic book fans will immediately recognise that name as the alter ego of Mister Sinister, but Wolverine looks set to explore Essex before his eventual transformation into the iconic X-Men villain. In the game, he is introduced as a powerful telekinetic and the leader of Team X.
Essex is also positioned on the opposite side of the mutant genetics debate from Bolivar Trask. While Essex believes mutants represent the superior species, Trask views them as an existential threat to humanity. That conflict was an important part of the game's story for director Brian Horton and the development team.
"What always makes fascinating pairings in the Marvel universe, to me, are conflicts," creative director Marcus Smith says. "And it’s never super black and white. It’s always degrees of differences. Obviously, Logan and Sabretooth on the same team, they have different moral codes, but it makes for a very interesting conflict."
"So having Essex and Trask be these tentpoles by which our moral leanings go was definitely the goalpost that we were shooting for."
In Wolverine, players become a living weapon. As he searches for answers about his past, Wolverine will do whatever it takes—unleashing brutal claw combat, violent rage, and relentless determination—to cut through the mystery of the man he used to be.
Developed in collaboration with Marvel Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment, Wolverine is coming to the PS5 on September 15.