It’s official: Troy Baker is voicing Nathaniel Essex, aka Mister Sinister, in Marvel’s Wolverine. Baker’s involvement in Insomniac Games’ upcoming title had been an open secret for years, and rumors about the character he would be voicing have been circulating for just as long. We even heard Baker’s voice and saw his character model—which, again, seemed highly likely to be Essex—in the Marvel’s Wolverine story trailer, but it still didn’t name him.
It seemed like Insomniac was gearing up for a big character reveal or something, but maybe it got wise and realized that the secret was already out, and if it did a whole big “Troy Baker is Nathaniel Essex!!!” press blitz, everyone would’ve been like, “No duh? We already knew? Y’all okay over there, Insomniac?” Anyway, the company opted instead to casually confirm the news in a few larger Marvel’s Wolverine features today, including at Variety and Entertainment Weekly.
In the game, Essex starts out as the leader of Team X, a quasi-military group of mutants, but after getting kidnapped by mutant hunter Bolivar Trask, he starts heading down a dark path.
As Marcus Smith, Insomniac’s creative director, told EW, “What always makes fascinating pairings in the Marvel universe, to me, are conflicts. 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.”
Baker voicing Essex wasn’t the only casting news released today. Insomniac also confirmed that Kelly Hu, who played Lady Deathstrike in X2: X-Men United, would be voicing Tyger Tiger, the owner of the bar where Logan likes to drink. Lady Deathstrike does appear in Marvel’s Wolverine (no word yet on who voices her), but apparently, Tyger Tiger was a better fit for Hu this time around.
Marvel’s Wolverine releases September 15 on PlayStation 5.
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