As if the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer wasn’t enough evidence that Marvel is starting to lean heavily into its stable of mutant characters, the first trailer for X-Men ’97 seemingly dropped out of nowhere and pushed the iconic team back into the spotlight.
The new series is an ambitious project that will take viewers back to the ’90s when X-Men fever was at its highest thanks to the Saturday morning cartoon that cultivated an entire new generation of fans.
Here’s everything we know about Season 1:
Plot
X-Men ’97 is a direct follow-up to the classic X-Men: The Animated Series where the show’s visual style and voice cast will strive to take fans back to the glory days of the Marvel mutants. However, the trailer already showed that the first season will immediately take a turn by dropping the bombshell that Magneto is now in charge of Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
“It’s always interesting to take Xavier’s dream and turn it on its head,” showrunner Beau DeMayo told Entertainment Weekly. “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?”
As for what classic X-Men tales might be adapted, DeMayo said the trailer offered very specific teases of what’s to come. “Every design choice is actually a clue to the storylines we’re doing,” DeMayo said. “Nothing is arbitrary.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
Marvel Animation’s “X-Men’97” revisits the iconic era of the 1990s as The X-Men, a band of mutants who use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them, are challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.
Cast
X-Men ’97 will bring back a sizable chunk of the voice cast from X-Men: The Animated series. That includes Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, George Buza as Beast, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, and Chris Britton as Mr. Sinister.
New additions to the sprawling cast include Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, AJ LoCascio as Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilee, JP Karliak as Morph, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, and Ross Marquand as Professor X.
The White Lotus star Theo James has also joined the cast in a secret role. “It is a fan-favorite character, I think, and it will surprise people,” DeMayo confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
Release Date
X-Men ’97 Season 1 premieres March 20 on Disney+ and will run for 10 episodes. As of this writing, it’s unclear whether the show will have a weekly release schedule or make the entire season available at once. A second season has already been confirmed and will also contain 10 episodes.
Trailer
You can watch the official trailer below:
X-Men ’97 premieres March 20 on Disney+.
