Wolverine (podcast)
Wolverine is a radio drama podcast series featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine. The show is Marvel's first scripted podcast produced by Marvel New Media and Stitcher. Marvel had previously done some other audio only formats in 1974 with a Fantastic Four 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 while also winning the 2019 iHeartRadio 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 announced "Marvel's Wastelanders," a series of interconnected podcasts set in a version of the Old Man Logan universe. Wolverine was announced as the central character for one of the series' podcasts. Premise. The Long Night. Federal agents are led to the fictional town of Burns, Alaska working a serial murder case. Logan 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, looking for an ex-lover when humans and mutants start disappearing. Assisted by a young boy, Logan investigates the disappearances, which brings them to encounter "biker gangs;" "Cajun thieves," one of whom is Gambit; and "a world of wonders that defies explanation." The duo find a refuge called Greenhaven led by a powerful mutant, Jason Wyngarde. Production. Marvel New Media and Stitcher 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 Gambit and Mastermind 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 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, Apple 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 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, it won the Best Scripted Podcast. Adaptations. Due to the success of "The Long Night", a comic adaptation was written by  the podcast writer Benjamin Percy. 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. 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 as Wolverine, Brigitte Kali Canales as Agent Sally Pierce, Guillermo García as Agent Tad Marshall, Bruno Bichir 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 variations, the series was voiced primarily in Mexican Spanish. Future. Benjamin Percy teased in a 2017 interview with  Mashable 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's "Marvels" would premiere in Fall 2019 with the first season focusing on the aftermath of the Fantastic Four's battle with Galactus and Phil Sheldon and his crew exploring the world of superheroes.