'X-Men ‘97' Animated Series Continuation Gets Trailer; Registers Premiere Date

Previously on X-Men, there was fifteen years without a dedicated animated series for the mutant superhero team.

The DNA of Disney+ is finally getting its long-awaited mutation. The return of the X-Men to animation is almost here, as the streamer has released the trailer for X-Men ‘97, the sequel to the Fox Kids X-Men animated series that ran from 1992 until the year the new series is named for, as it picks up immediately. They have also announced that the ten-episode season will premiere on March 20. The release format has not been explicitly confirmed.

When we left off in the finale of the ten-episode fifth season of X-Men: The Animated Series, “Graduation Day” Professor Charles Xavier has been shipped off in the care of Lilandra to recover in the Shi'ar Empire out there in the greater depths of space. Magneto (real name Erik Lehnsherr), Xavier’s friend and rival has stepped in to lead his mutants, and is now voiced by Matthew Waterson. Beau DeMayo, who serves as head writer and an executive producer, told Entertainment Weekly “It’s always interesting to take Xavier’s dream and turn it on its head,” DeMayo says. “When I first came to this, I was thinking about what the world of the '90s was like, even issues of social acceptance and what does it mean to be different? It was so much more simplistic than it is today. [The X-Men] spent years telling humanity to embrace the future, walk into the future together. What happens when they get hit with a future they didn't see coming? What does it feel like to be on the other end when you feel like that future is leaving you behind?

So how much of the roster is going to have to contemplate this? Who’s coming back? Well, it’s a lot. Characters, voice actors, certainly enough to satisfy, just not in every way you might expect. First, the reprisals (with characters listed in codename/real name format): We have Lenore Zann as Rogue, Cal Dodd as Wolverine/Logan, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm/Ororo Munroe, George Buza as Beast/Henry “Hank” McCoy, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, and Chris Britton as Mister Sinister/Nathaniel Essex. Then there’s the other recasts: Ray Chase of Pokémon and Rock Paper Scissors voices Cyclops/Scott Summers, Jennifer Hale picks the roles of Jean Grey back up having voiced the character in other places including the most recent western X-Men cartoon, Wolverine and the X-Men, AJ LoCascio of Voltron: Legendary Defender and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai voices Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Holly Chou voices Jubilee/Jubilation Lee, JP Karliak, who is the TV voice of The Boss Baby, voices Morph, Isaac Robinson-Smith voices Bishop/Lucan Bishop, Ross Marquand, who already took over as Red Skull in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and voiced Ultron as well in What If…? adds Professor Charles Xavier to his Marvel roles, Gui Augustini voices Sunspot/Roberto Da Costa, Gil Birmingham voices Forge/Daniel Lone Eagle, and the ubiquitous Eric Bauza voices the Sentinels.

But that’s not all! There are still a handful of voice actors from the original series given new roles to be a part of things: Catherine Disher, who was Jean Grey, is now voicing the suspicious Dr. Valerie Cooper. Chris Potter, who was Gambit, is now Cable/Nathan Summers. Lawrence Bayne, who was Cable, is now voicing Carl Dentil/X-Cutioner. Ron Rubin, the original Morph, is now voicing President Robert Edward Kelly. And then there’s Alyson Court, the original Jubilee, now playing Abscissa. And then there’s The White Lotus and The Time Traveler’s Wife star Theo James, teased as a believed “fan-favorite character”, and “will surprise people”. The recastings happened for various reasons, including for representation, like Jubilee being voiced by an Asian, as similar moves, bringing Jenny Yokobori and Alex Desert to The Simpsons, Ayo Edebiri to Big Mouth, Arif Zahir to Family Guy, Feodor Chin to Futurama, and Mitra Jouhari to Clone High, had been made in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. There’s also symbolism, as DeMayo wanted Disher, who as Grey voiced his favorite character to “deliver the show’s thesis” as Cooper.

The classic costumes are back too and each serve a specific purpose as well in the first season: "Every design choice is actually a clue to the storylines we're doing. Nothing is arbitrary." The clue from the legacy costumes is all about nostalgia. "It's a nice nod to Pryde of the X-Men,” he explains, referring to the 1989 pilot that was a first attempt for an X-Men animated series. “But it is to throw the X-Men back to a time where they're thinking about: What part of this do I want to keep? Was it truly simpler back then, or were we just more naive?”

The episodes are directed by Jake Castorena, Chase Conley and Emi Yonemura with music by The Newton Brothers, so there’s no Ron Wasserman or Noam Kaniel here. The series’ other executive producers are the usual suspects: Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, and Victoria Alonso. The series was originally announced on Disney+ Day in 2021 to premiere in fall 2023, but was pushed in the midst of the actors’ and writers’ strikes to where it ultimately released in this early 2024 window. Formal updates had been very hard to come by after San Diego Comic-Con 2022. The public reveal of the new Marvel Animation banner came with Thursday’s unveiling.

Sources: Deadline, Entertainment Weekly