The arrival of the X-Men and the mutantkind to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still not clear. However, it is being hinted that it was not that far as Disney plus will debut its first X-men content.

New X-men animated series

The studio announced on Disney Plus Day that they will be reviving the iconic ‘90s animated show X-Men: The Animated Series on the platform. Disney announced that the show will serve as a continuation of its original run from 1992 to 1997. The new series will be branded X-Men ‘97 and it will pick up right from the original series left off.

Disney surprised the fans with the news using the viral meme from the original series where Wolverine is longingly gazing at a picture frame with an image of his teammates Cyclops and Jean Grey. Disney used the meme format and superimposed the picture with the logo of the new series.

The studio ordered ten episodes for the series and it will premiere in 2023.

A continuation of the original show

The producers of the original show Eric and Julia Lewald were recently interviewed by Justin Underwood on his Youtube channel, they will also serve as a consultant to the new show.

“They told us that they would like to continue the new show right where the original series ended. The X-Men: The Animated Series ended in a cliffhanger,” said Julia.

Following the severe injury of Charles Xavier in the hands of Henry Peter Gyrich, it looks like the Omega-level mutant will not make it. Fortunately, Empress Lilandra came in and offered to take the injured Professor X into space to recover in the Shi’Ar Empire.

According to original show’s producer Eric Lewald, he said “X-Men ‘97 will build around that ending. We made it that way so that fans will be reminded of the original series and it will have a sense of continuity.”

“They wanted the new series to be an extension of our series. At least ten episodes were announced for the first season.”

A respectful homage

According to the reports, X-Men ‘97 is dedicated to paying homage to the original show including the recreation of the ‘90s Saturday morning cartoon aesthetics in the new series. Also, most of the original voice actors from the original cartoon will be reprising their role.

“The new team who is behind the new show wanted to make it as close as possible to our show. Despite it being a recreation of our series, we know that they will make it their own. There is a huge respect and love from the show’s producer Beau DeMayo and we know that they will not mess it up,” Eric said.

“They could’ve said that they will reboot it to make it fully their own but they said that they will pay respect to our cartoon. We saw their work and it is still the same design as ours but it was improved to fit the modern era with today’s technology,” he added.

X-Men ‘97 sought the old cast returning such as Cal Dodd as Wolverine, George Buza as Beast, Chris Potter as Gambit, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, Christopher Britton as Mister Sinister, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, and Catherine Disher as Jean Grey.

Final Words

The new X-Men series will surely bring back ‘90s era nostalgia for the fans of X-Men. This animated series is also a good avenue to introduce the characters to the younger fans of the franchise.

Even though the series is not canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is still a good way to build up the hype to the impending arrival of mutants to the MCU even if we didn’t know when that would be.

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