Marvel’s Wolverine Has Sweet Baby Inc., An Ugly Jean Grey, and A Narrative Director Who Called That “One of the Finest in the Biz”
Marvel’s Wolverine from Insomniac Games releases September 15, 2026 on PlayStation 5. The State of Play gameplay reveal on June 2 should have been the cleanest possible moment for a game that has been in development since 2021. Instead it reignited a controversy that has been building around the project for over two years.
The controversy has three documented components: Sweet Baby Inc. involvement confirmed by Insomniac’s own staff, the redesign of Jean Grey generating immediate fan backlash, and the pattern of a game titled Wolverine structuring itself around female characters at the expense of its own stated premise.
The Sweet Baby Inc. connection surfaced in early 2024 when the narrative consulting firm appeared in the game’s own development communications and on the firm’s own project list. Grummz documented the connection: “We know that Sweet Baby Inc. is involved with Marvel’s Wolverine. We know this because of Sweet Baby’s own tweets, and because a Narrative Director for Insomniac’s Wolverine game ran to the defense of SBI.”
That narrative director is Mary Kenney. Her public defense was not ambiguous. In a 12-post X thread in March 2024, she wrote: “Some of you don’t seem to understand how narrative consulting on games works, but don’t worry: I do! Yes this is about Sweet Baby, because I’ve worked with that team, and they’re one of the finest in the biz.”
Sweet Baby Inc. is the consulting firm whose involvement in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League preceded a $200 million loss for Warner Bros. The firm’s founder Kim Belair stated that SBI provides “Cultural Consultation, Sensitivity And Inclusivity Reading, Risk and Opportunities Assessment.” The firm’s website previously stated it was created as a place for women and “marginalized identities.” The gaming community’s concern about SBI’s involvement is not based on speculation. It is based on the documented track record of titles they consulted on.
The June 2 State of Play reveal added Jean Grey to the documented concerns. The reaction on X was swift and pointed. Fan account @Ronsaidwhatnow posted: “I was so right from the very beginning when I talked about Jean Grey being ugly from the leaked photos of Marvel’s Wolverine. Well, here she is now in the finished product, still ugly. What is it with modern game studios and their desire to make women so unattractive?”
@Kachinkastic posted a direct comparison: “Jean Grey in Marvel Rivals, made by Asian devs: beautiful, charming, gorgeous. Jean Grey in Marvel’s Wolverine, made by Western devs: visually ugly, Karen-style, looks like a man in women’s dresses... and some people still wonder why everyone currently prefers games made by Asian devs.”
@JohnnyMassacre went directly at the decision: “LMFAO DEI quota detected. ‘We must give significant run time to female ugly Jean Grey in a WOLVERINE game.’ Same representation quota as Oscar categories. This is a Wolverine game, not X-Men.”
@JoJo98476713 put the character-specific argument clearly: “We just want to see pretty women especially when you gonna play her or if she is an iconic character who is SUPPOSED TO BE PRETTY like Jean Grey. In Wolverine, all media included, it’s the worst she has ever looked.”
The Mystique redesign from the September 2025 trailer had generated the same reaction months earlier. Fans called the design off-model and unrecognizable. Insomniac’s response was to post a clown emoji pointing at critics. The studio that is defending a narrative director’s endorsement of a DEI consulting firm responded to character design criticism with mockery.
The Jean Grey problem amplifies the design complaint. This is a game called Wolverine. The franchise’s premise is built on one of comics’ most iconic male protagonists — a short, brutal, Canadian berserker who is defined by his violence, his pain, and his isolation. Jean Grey is a significant figure in Wolverine’s history, but this is his game. The decision to give her what fans are describing as “significant run time” reflects the same priority shift that produced a God of War entry without Kratos, a Horizon game where Aloy replaced any male perspective, and a Star Wars franchise where Luke Skywalker became a background figure.
Actress Debra Wilson has been confirmed in the cast as Callisto, one of the leaders of the Morlocks. Callisto is a legitimate X-Men character with comic book history — she leads the Morlock community of mutant outcasts who live underground and serves as a recurring antagonist and occasional ally to the X-Men. The character's inclusion is not invented for this game. What the community is noting, consistent with the broader pattern across Insomniac's Marvel titles, is that the confirmed cast is building toward a structure where a Black female authority figure and Jean Grey occupy significant narrative real estate in a game whose title belongs to Wolverine. Callisto as a character has decades of comics history. Her placement in the principal cast of a Wolverine solo game, alongside an elevated Jean Grey role, reflects the same structural priority the community has catalogued across multiple Insomniac titles.
The original creative director Brian Horton, who had been on the project since its 2021 announcement, departed mid-development. The game shipping without its founding creative director, with Sweet Baby Inc. confirmed as a consultant, with a narrative director who publicly champions that consulting firm, and with a Jean Grey design that the game’s own audience is comparing unfavorably to competing titles made by studios without the same ideological infrastructure is not a random collection of events.
The game releases September 15. The FP audience will watch whether the finished product reflects all of these warning signs or whether Insomniac delivered the brutal Wolverine game its own marketing promised.
Does the Sweet Baby Inc. involvement change whether you plan to buy Marvel’s Wolverine? Let us know in the comments.
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