Wolverine is the second entry in the Marvel Anime project, a collaboration between Marvel Entertainment, Japanese studio Madhouse, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, following Iron Man.

A teaser for the Wolverine anime was screened alongside Iron Man at Comic-Con in July 2009, and Marvel's November 2009 earnings announcement initially targeted a Q3 2010 premiere before the series actually launched in January 2011.

The story was devised by comic book writer Warren Ellis, the same writer behind the Iron Man anime, and is based on Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's 1980s Wolverine comic work.

Although the comic version of Wolverine is short, hairy and middle-aged, the anime redesigns him as a tall, handsome young man based on Hugh Jackman's live-action film portrayal, and he never wears the X-Men bodysuit or mask.

Cyclops appears wearing the head-covering costume he used during the 'Inner Circle' conflict era, a design later reused in the third Marvel Anime series, X-Men.

The character Wolverine appears as a guest star across all four Marvel Anime series (Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade), with his appearances in the other shows taking place before or after the events of his own series.

Swordsman Yoshida Shingen and ninja-clawed mutant Kikyo Mikage both later reappear or are referenced in the fourth Marvel Anime series, Blade, with Mikage being hired by the vampire organization Existence.

The English dub of the Wolverine anime premiered in the United States on G4 in July 2011, with a preview sneak peek airing right after Iron Man's own sneak peek following G4's Comic-Con 2011 coverage.