The X-Men have been the center of rampant speculation, fan casting, and overall intrigue ever since the MCU scooped up the rights from Fox. Who’ll be on the team? What villain will they take on first? Who’s going to play Wolverine? Even Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said that “we’re getting close” to the re-introduction of Marvel’s favorite mutants. The upcoming release of Deadpool & Wolverine will delight fans as many of the versions of the X-Men from the 20th Century Fox movies will make their return. Yet that isn’t the only high-profile X-Men project in 2024. Premiering four months before the third Deadpool movie will be X-Men ’97 a continuation of the classic ’90s X-Men: The Animated Series.
The X-Men series came during the great run of cartoons along with Batman: The Animated Series, kicking off an era of high-profile superhero animated series like Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series. Long before the live-action films, these animated series introduced these characters to entirely new audiences, one that maybe had never picked up a comic book before. X-Men still holds up thirty years later as pure entertainment with its ambitious message of tolerance and harmony. The tone is heavy for grade school kids to lounge out and wolf down Lucky Charms on a Saturday morning.
X-Men ’97 now has a great deal of expectations thrust upon it. It needs to play for both an older audience who were kids of the original series that want to recapture that magic they felt while also feeling like it is advancing in terms of plot and characters with them, while also being a fun, entertaining cartoon that can stand on its own that a new generation of kids can enjoy. Here’s what X-factors are needed to match or top X-Men: The Animated Series.
Update February 26, 2024: This article has been updated following the trailer premiere for X-Men ’97 and the series upcoming debut on Disney+.
Draw From New Comics
Much has changed since X-Men: The Animated Series debuted. The animated series obviously drew heavily from both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s initial conflict of the X-Men vs. Magneto and the Brotherhood but also from Chris Claremont’s iconic storylines like “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past”. When the series debuted in 1991, it was also heavily influenced by rather recent additions to the X-Men franchise, like featuring Apocalypse (who was introduced five years prior in 1986) and new mutants like Gambit, Cable, Jubilee, and Bishop. It embraced both the old and the new at the time.
The new series obviously wants to pick up where the previous series left off, but also, much has changed in the X-Men franchise since the series went off the air. Obviously, the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies have had a big influence on the franchise, but groundbreaking comics like Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run, Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, Brian Michael Bendis All New X-Men or even Jonathan Hickman’s redefining take on the material with House of X/Powers of X that saw the mutant nation of Kroka emerge. While fans clearly want to see the X-Men they know and love for the series, there also presents an interesting chance to drop these versions into an interpretation of storylines that were not available prior.
Hints of this are partially seen in the trailer, as a newspaper features a reference to the “Hellfire Gala”, a big event from Jonathan Hickman’s Dawn of X era. It also features Maggot and Dusk, two characters who debuted in the comics after X-Men: The Animated Series. Hopefully, the new series embraces both the old “classic” elements audiences associated with where the franchise has gone since. With exciting new characters like Xorn, Vulcan, Omega Sentinel, Hope Summers, and the new revelation of Moria McTaggart being a mutant, X-Men ’97 has plenty of exciting new material to draw from.
X-Men: The Animated Series Action and Animation
X-Men: The Animated Series was among the elite Saturday morning animated fare we rocketed out of bed for. The concept of super-powered mutants made for some excellent fights against intolerant goons, stories-high-talking robots, and fellow Homo sapiens superior. No matter who the X-Men fought, we ate up every minute of it. The use of mutant powers and surroundings in the action sequences was creative and engaging, from Rogue beating Sentinels with their own torn-off appendages right down to the gritty hand-to-hand combat of Wolverine.
Action in movies and series has only gotten more innovative in the intervening three decades, so it’s a safe bet that a rebooted X-Men series will have all the thrills of the original. The trailer already showcased some of the incredible action, including Gambit charging up Wolverine’s claws with kinetic energy. There are certainly bound to be even more great power pairings and epic showdowns between various mutants and against the powerful Sentinels.
Like Batman: The Animated Series, the animation in X-Men is a living comic book. Remarkable for its time, the then hand-drawn frames brought the characters and their world to colorful and detailed life. X-Men ’97 maintains the same general style and look of the original series, but updates with new modern animation techniques to allow for more fluid motions than the sometimes rather stiff animation of the original series. It seems to combine a bit of 2D cel-shading to give the images a greater level of depth.
Characters and Voice Performances
The most remarkable aspects of X-Men: The Animated Series are the characters and the voice actors who brought them to life. From the commanding, cool pipes of Cyclops to the caustic growl of Wolverine and the soothing monotone of Professor X, every member of the cast nailed it. When we read the comics, the voices from the series still sound out the words in the dialogue bubbles. The characters are fully fleshed out and vivid, with their own unique quirks, backstories, and demons. Every viewer wanted to be one of the X-Men, thanks partly to these incredible performances.
Most of the original voice cast will return to Xavier’s School for this round, including Cal Dodd as James Howlett/Wolverine, Chris Potter as Remy LeBeau/Gambit, George Buza as Beast, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and Alison Sealy-Smith as Ororo Munroe/Storm. Sadly, the actors behind Cyclops (Norm Spencer), Professor X (Cedric Smith), and Magneto (David Hemblen) will not return as Spencher and Hemblen have passed away in the interim, but Ray Chase, Ross Marquand, and Matthew Waterson are stepping into the fill out the respective roles.
Jennifer Hale is voicing Jean Grey, and Holly Chou will voice Jubilee. J. P. Karliak is voicing Morph’s character. Alyson Court, who voiced the original Jubilee, is now voicing a character named Abcissa, an alternate timeline version of Jubilee. Catherine Disher, who originally voiced Jean Grey, will now lend her voice to Valerie Cooper. So it is clear the series has some interesting new directions to take the voice actors and the characters.
Writing and Themes
Professor X’s dream of peace between mutants and humans is the dominant theme of X-Men: The Animated Series, one of many metaphors and prescient warnings packed into its scripts. This code simply translates to “It’s okay to be different” and “Don’t be a jerk to people who are different.” These are pretty solid messages to introduce to young minds. Though a bit sophisticated for pre-teens, the series also throws in a healthy dose of distrust and forewarning about authoritarian strongmen with its sometimes apocalyptic, dystopian stories.
The X-Men have always been a progressive franchise, one since the early days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as it was a clear allegory for the civil rights movement. The themes of oppression have made the characters relatable to many and malleable enough to be an allegory of homosexuality and religious persecution. The franchise, which features a diverse cast of characters from a variety of backgrounds, is particularly topical for a young audience who has seen a rise of right-wing nationalism sweeping countries around the world.
The series’ decision to reveal that the character of Morph would be non-binary caused the predictable and cynical backlash from the same crowd that gets upset about any sense of progressive ideas in the material, even if it is true to the nature of the franchise. Certain corners of the internet were quick to label this decision as “woke,” describing a franchise whose central message is about being woke and accepting people no matter who they are. They don’t seem to recognize they are the same humans who despise the mutants.
Beyond the gospel of treating everyone with dignity, the series offers excellent dialogue tailor-made for each respective character. Lead writers Mark Edward Edens and Julia Lewald gave us takes on these heroes that rival the best comic scribes of our time. Even some of the best-animated series give us characters that are one-dimensional and, at times, even interchangeable. Not this one. Each X-Man is their own person with a past and present struggle and unique voice. The revival that is X-Men ’97 has been handed off to writer Beau DeMayo, whose credits include The Witcher and Moon Knight. Will DeMayo be able to replicate the spot-on character creation of the ’90s writers’ room? Audiences will find out on Disney+ in what is now one of the most anticipated series of the year.
X-Men ’97 will debut on Disney+ on March 20, 2024. Watch the trailer below.
