Marvel Studios has a slew of new shows heading to Disney Plus in the near future. However, unlike the many MCU productions that look towards the future, X-Men '97 will bring back an old fan favorite, and that includes recruiting a lot of the creative talent behind the '90s Saturday morning cartoon.
Both the X-Men and Spider-Man animated series are currently available on Disney Plus. However, currently Marvel Studios only owns the rights for Professor X’s team, whose revival was announced last November, with its release being planned for 2023. Among the people returning for X-Men '97 are most of the surviving cast members, with exceptions like Jubilee voice actor Alyson Court. Former showrunners like Eric and Julia Lewald will be returning in new roles as consulting producers.
Recently, Eric and Julia happened to sit down for an interview with YouTuber Justin Underwood to discuss what it was like working on a show of such cultural significance and how that legacy will shape X-Men '97. "They're looking at 10 episodes for the first season that's going to come out mid-next year," the duo said. "They're starting it soon after ours ended... 'Where is [Professor X?]'" Nevertheless, both producers agreed that they’re on board mostly to help with the X-Men's transition from 1997 to 2023 but that in the end, it’s the new writers like Beau DeMayo (The Witcher) who will truly make it theirs.
Although the entire interview is definitely worth listening to, one of the most noteworthy aspects is how Lewald describes the production process back in 1992 when the show started compared to now. Among his anecdotes, having problems finding proper comic book source material, given the show started before the internet’s widespread adoption, is surely standout. Perhaps most interestingly, Lewald and the other writers’ confessed lack of familiarity with comic book fandom may come as a surprise for many, but as he says, there were Marvel experts on the team who helped other writers simply focus on creating the best stories they could come up with.
To this day the X-Men animated series holds up as one of the better shows to have come out of Marvel's '90s era, alongside Spider-Man. So the fact that X-Men '97 will be a direct continuation will have many fans excited about it.
That legacy could prove to be quite a burden for X-Men '97, since -as told by Lewald- the '90s show had a profound impact all over the world. It not only shaped the notion many have of superheroes but even helped tons of people learn a second language once the X-Men became the kind of international hit that made it one of Marvel's most coveted properties.
X-Men '97 will be released exclusively on Disney Plus.