Marvel Studios Animation has hit the jackpot with its new series X-Men ’97. The series has got the fandom deep in discussion about the X-Men characters and the themes that made the mutants popular. While the Animation department’s What If…? is considered MCU canon, the same cannot be said for X-Men ’97. While the showrunner Beau DeMayo definitively claimed that the animated series is a standalone entity, Marvel Studios was not so sure.
Kevin Feige reportedly went back and forth a lot about making the animated series canon to the MCU. However, it appears that the show chose to stay on its own path for now, following in the footsteps of its predecessor X-Men: The Animated Series.
Marvel Studios Seriously Considered Making X-Men ’97 MCU Canon
X-Men became part of the Marvel ensemble after 20th Century Fox studio was acquired by Disney. Several characters have made appearances in the MCU, the most exciting of which is about to happen in the upcoming film Deadpool & Wolverine. When Marvel Studios announced X-Men ’97 as a continuation of the ’90s animated series, fans wondered whether the series would serve as a prequel to the events in the MCU.
Marvel Studios under Kevin Feige seriously considered this prospect. Director Emi Yonemura, who directed two episodes of the series, shared that there was a lot of back and forth going on the series about whether the series should be made part of the MCU. However, the studio finally decided to make the series its own thing. Yonemura shared with Inverse:
“That has always been something we know was on Kevin Feige’s mind, do we make this part of the MCU? Do we not make this part of the MCU? It’s actually gone back and forth quite a few times, and I think we did land in a smart place because [X-Men: The Animated Series] was its own thing, and I think that to continue it we needed to be our own thing.”
The head director of the animated series, Jake Castorena also agreed that keeping them separate would be the best thing for now. The separation from canon would allow X-Men ’97 to explore some exciting and daring plots that the family-friendly MCU projects would’ve dared to explore. Castorena shared with Inverse:
“We’re getting the X-Men in this format and we’re doing it justice not just by ourselves, but also other fans as well, and we’re starting to get a resurgence of the X-Men in film again. I love that. And I think it’s great that we can have different things, let them be different.”
X-Men ’97 has released six episodes so far and it has been a rollercoaster ride for the fans with the mature themes and emotions explored in the series. It’s definitely not the sequel series you would expect for a kid-friendly X-Men: The Animated Series.
Canon Or No Canon, Kevin Feige Wanted To Respect The Original Animated Series
Brad Winderbaum, the executive producer of X-Men ’97 shared that Kevin Feige greenlit the series only if they could fulfill two of his conditions. Winderbaum shared that the Marvel boss wanted the original cast members to return to voice their roles. He also wanted the original theme song from the original to be played in the renewed series. Winderbaum told THR:
“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. 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 six episodes of the show are now available for streaming on Disney+. The seventh episode will drop on April 24, 2024.
