''Wolverine'' is a

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

series featuring the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...

character

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a musc ...

. The show is Marvel's first scripted podcast produced by Marvel New Media and

Stitcher Stitcher is a media company that specializes in the creation, distribution, and monetization of podcasts. Stitcher creates original shows through networks such as Earwolf and Witness Docs. Stitcher provides ad sales and distribution services to ...

. Marvel had previously done some other audio only formats in 1974 with a

Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in ''The Fantastic Four'' #1 (cover dated Nov. 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism in the medium. It was the first s ...

radio series and a ''Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero'' concept album. It was dubbed one of the Best Podcasts of 2018 by

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...

while also winning the 2019

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbrella brand for iHe ...

Award for Best Scripted Podcast. A comic adaptation was published by Marvel due to the podcast's success. In 2021, Marvel New Media and

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

announced '' Marvel's Wastelanders,'' a series of podcasts set in a version of the

Old Man Logan Old Man Logan is an alternative version of the Marvel Comics fictional character Wolverine. This character is an aged version of Wolverine set in an alternate future universe designated Earth-807128, where the supervillains overthrew the supe ...

universe. ''Marvel's Wastelanders: Wolverine'' launched in June 2022, featuring

Robert Patrick Robert Hammond Patrick (born November 5, 1958) is an American actor. Known for portraying villains and honorable authority figures, he is a Saturn Award winner with four other nominations. Patrick dropped out of college when drama class sparked ...

as the voice of Wolverine.

Premise

The Long Night

Federal agents are led to the fictional town of Burns,

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

working a serial murder case.

Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gov ...

is the main suspect. The agents will uncover Logan's dual identity and the corruption in the small town. Logan is attempting to escape from society and over the course of the series recover some of his lost memories. He is, however, drawn to execute "frontier justice." Located nearby is the Aurora cult, who may or may not have power or be involved in the murders.

The Lost Trail

The second season, ''The Lost Trail'', finds Wolverine in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, looking for an ex-lover when

humans" \n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...

and mutants start disappearing. Assisted by a young boy, Logan investigates the disappearances, which brings them to encounter "biker gangs;" "

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

thieves," one of whom is

Gambit A gambit (from Italian , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices with the aim of achieving a subsequent advantage. The word '' gambit'' is also sometimes used to describe sim ...

; and "a world of wonders that defies explanation." The duo find a refuge called Greenhaven led by a powerful mutant, Jason Wyngarde.

Voice cast

The Long Night cast

* Richard Armitage as Logan / Wolverine *

Celia Keenan-Bolger Celia Keenan-Bolger (born January 26, 1978) is an American actress and singer. She is known for portraying Scout Finch in the play ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (2018), which earned her a Tony Award. She has also won three Drama Desk Awards and an ...

as Agent Sally Pierce *

Ato Essandoh Ato Essilfi Bracato Essandoh (born July 29, 1972) is an American television and film actor. Early life Essandoh was born in Schenectady, New York to Ghanaian parents and graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1990. He received a B.S. in ch ...

as Agent Tad Marshall *

Andrew Keenan-Bolger Andrew Keenan-Bolger is an American actor. He is best known for originating the roles of Crutchie in ''Newsies'', and Jesse Tuck in '' Tuck Everlasting'' on Broadway. His other Broadway credits include Robertson Ay in ''Mary Poppins'', Jojo in ' ...

as Deputy Bobby Reid *

Scott Adsit Robert Scott Adsit (born November 26, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Adsit joined the mainstage cast of Chicago's The Second City in 1994 after attending Columbia College Chicago. He app ...

as Sheriff Ridge *

Brian Stokes Mitchell Brian Stokes Mitchell (born October 31, 1957) is an American actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theater since the 1990s. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 f ...

as Nicholas Prophet *

Bob Balaban Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared. Balab ...

as Joseph Langrock

The Lost Trail cast

* Richard Armitage as Logan / Wolverine *

Bill Irwin William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a n ...

as Jason Wyngarde / Mastermind * Bill Heck as Remy LeBeau / Gambit * Rodney Henry as Marcus Baptiste * Christina Bennett Lind as Agent Sally Pierce *

Blair Brown Bonnie Blair Brown (born April 23, 1946) is an American theater, film and television actress. She has had a number of high-profile roles, including in the play '' Copenhagen'' on Broadway, the leading actress in the films ''Altered States'' ...

as Bonnie Roach * Mugga as Ruby Baptiste * Rachael Holmes as Maureen

Episodes

Season 1: The Long Night

Season 2: The Lost Trail

Production

Marvel New Media and

announced on December 5, 2017 ''Wolverine: The Long Night'' was in production for a spring 2018 launch on Stitcher Premium and a wider release in fall 2018. Sound design for the podcast was by Brendan Baker and Chloe Prasinos with some of the recording taking place outside in the appropriate terrain and with actors interacting and moving together. Producers are Daniel Fink for Marvel and Jenny Radelet for Stitcher. The first season's first two episodes debuted on March 12, 2018, on Stitcher with two episode per week to follow; it ended its first season with ten episodes in early May. A teaser trailer for the podcast was also released to promote it. On November 5, 2018, Marvel and Sticher announced that second season called ''Wolverine: The Lost Trail'' has started production with

and

Mastermind Mastermind, Master Mind or The Mastermind may refer to: Fictional characters * Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), a fictional supervillain in Marvel Comics, a title also held by his daughters: ** Martinique Jason, the first daughter and successor of th ...

being added to the story for a first quarter 2019 debut. With the release of its trailer, Marvel indicated that the release date for the second season to be March 25, 2019 with Percy and Baker returning as writer for the season with associate director and sound designer Chloe Prasinos.

Reception

After listening to three episodes, Beth Elderkin of

Io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

found the podcast to be "... off on a promising (albeit imperfect) note." "It might not be perfect, and some of the characters and setups might verge on the ridiculous, but it's exciting to experience a comic book universe story in this format." In 2018,

named it as one of the "Best Podcasts of the Year" while being in their Top 25 Most Downloaded Podcasts of the Year and Top 25 Most Downloaded New Podcasts of the Year. During the 2019

Podcast Awards, it won the Best Scripted Podcast. ''The Long Night'' won Best Scripted Podcast at the inaugural

Podcast Awards in January 2019, as well as a 2019

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

for Best Original Music/Sound Design in a Podcast. In addition,

included ''The Long Night'' on its Best of 2018 podcasts list.

Adaptations

Due to the success of ''The Long Night'', a

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

adaptation was written by the podcast writer

Benjamin Percy Benjamin Percy is an American author of novels and short stories, essayist, comic book writer, and screenwriter. Career Benjamin Percy has published four novels, ''The Dark Net'', ''The Dead Lands'', ''Red Moon'', and ''The Wilding'', as well a ...

. Joining Percy on the adaptation was artist Marcio Takara and cover artist Rafael Albuquerque for issue 1 released in January 2019. The adaptation was a five issue mini-series in which two chapters were truncated to fill an issue. A Spanish-language version of ''The Long Night'' podcast — ''La Larga Noche'' — was released in September 2021 as part of Marvel's podcasting partnership with

SiriusXM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sa ...

. A Spanish-language translation of the comic book adaption was previously released by Panini Cómics Latinoamérica in Argentina in 2019. The ''Wolverine: La Larga Noche'' podcast is directed by Alejandra López with sound design by Brendan Baker and Chloe Prasinos and features the voices of

Joaquín Cosío Joaquín Cosío Osuna (born 6 October 1962) is a Mexican actor and poet. He is best known for roles such as Rubén "Mascarita" in ''Matando Cabos'' (2004), General Medrano in ''Quantum of Solace'' (2008), Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in '' Narco ...

as Wolverine, Brigitte Kali Canales as Agent Sally Pierce, Guillermo García as Agent Tad Marshall,

Bruno Bichir Bruno Bichir Nájera (born 6 October 1967) is a Mexican actor and one of the members of the Bichir family. Biography Bichir was born in Mexico City. He started his acting career at the age of five in several theater, film and television series. ...

as Sheriff Ridge, and Ricardo Chávez as Nicholas Prophet. Although Percy's original ''The Long Night'' script was used as the basis for ''La Larga Noche'', about half of the dialogue was reinterpreded to better fit the Spanish language. Although the voice actors speak a range of Spanish dialects, the series was voiced primarily in

Mexican Spanish Mexican Spanish ( es, español mexicano) is the variety of dialects and sociolects of the Spanish language spoken in Mexican territory. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers, with more than twice as many as in any other country in ...

Wolverine: La Larga Noche

Future

Benjamin Percy teased in a 2017 interview with

Mashable Mashable is a digital media platform, news website and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2005. Early iterations of the site were a ...

that ''Wolverine: The Long Night'' could be the start of a whole new interconnected universe, which he called the Marvel Podcast Universe. On August 14, 2019, Marvel and Stitcher announced that a 10-episode podcast adaptation of

Kurt Busiek Kurt Busiek ( ) (born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer. His work includes the ''Marvels'' limited series, his own series titled '' Astro City'', a four-year run on '' The Avengers, Thunderbolts'' and '' Superman.'' Early life ...

's ''

Marvels ''Marvels'' is a four-issue miniseries comic book written by Kurt Busiek, painted by Alex Ross and edited by Marcus McLaurin. It was published by Marvel Comics in 1994. Set in the 1939 to 1974 time period, the series examines the Marvel Univ ...

'' would premiere in Fall 2019 with the first season focusing on the aftermath of the

's battle with

Galactus Galactus () is a fictional Character (arts), character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Formerly a mortal man, Galactus is a cosmic entity who consumes planets to sustain his life force, and serves a functional role ...

and Phil Sheldon and his crew exploring the world of superheroes.

References

External links

* {{Wolverine Wolverine (comics) in other media American radio dramas Comic book podcasts Crime podcasts Science fiction podcasts 2018 podcast debuts Works based on Marvel Comics American podcasts Scripted podcasts