Kevin Feige, head of Marvel Studios, had two key conditions when greenlighting new animated series X-Men ‘97. According to producer Brad Winderbaum, the MCU head wanted to make sure they tackled the reboot right.
"Following the success of What If…?, when we were able to make more animated shows, [X-Men ’97] was my first idea out of the box," he tells The Hollywood Reporter. "And Kevin [Feige] was like, 'Alright, if we can get the [original] cast and we can get the song, let’s do it.' And fortunately, we were able to do that."
The new show picks up right where X-Men: The Animated Series ended. With the original cast back, the show follows the team of mutants as they try and find a way forward following the death of Professor Charles Xavier. Among those returning are Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, and Alison Sealy-Smith.
Early reactions to the show have praised its fidelity to the original series, calling it nostalgic and branding it "the definitive incarnation of the X-Men". There’s a lot of praise for the returning theme song too, with one critic saying: "When that theme song kicked in, it feels like I was transported back in time."
X-Men ‘97 hits Disney Plus with the first two episodes on Wednesday, March 20. New episodes will then follow weekly – check out our X-Men '97 release schedule for more details on that.
I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.
