“What else do you want to do?”: Kevin Feige Only Allowed Brad Winderbaum to Make X-Men ’97 after His First MCU Show Was a Mega-Hit

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is known for his meticulous approach to anything and everything related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It takes a keen and experienced eye to watch over the supremely dynamic MCU. 

His keen eye and counsel allowed the production of X-Men ’97, only when there was a certain sense of assurance that the fans would still want to watch an animated show. Here is how everything played out.

Brad Winderbaum Could Only Make X-Men ’97 After The Success Of Another Animated Show

Marvel Studios is in the middle of something transitional. With the underwhelming performance of its recent releases, such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, the studio has not been able to win over fans.

Marvel now seems to be trying to bring back some magic of its olden days. Something that is enjoyed immensely. This has been done with the revival of X-Men: The Animated Series. First aired in 1992, the show ran for five seasons and opened the doors of the MCU for many fans. Covering important aspects from comics like Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, the new series titled X-Men ’97 starts right where the original left off.

The show has been brought to life by Brad Winderbaum, an executive producer at Marvel. Winderbaum has been involved in many major Marvel projects for a long time now. But he didn’t easily get the green flag from Kevin Feige for an animated show. The success of another animated show called What If..? was the reason Feige gave him the X-Men project.

Speaking with Men’s Health, Winderbaum himself revealed how his wish to revive X-Men: The Animated Series came to fruition. Initially, it was all about exploring the animation space and audiences responded to it. The executive producer said:

“When we were first making stuff for Disney+, I pitched the animated show called What If…?. We had just finished the first season, and everyone was really happy with it, and it did really well. That was our first foray as a studio into animation.”

And thus, the story of X-Men’97 came to be.

Kevin Feige Then Immediately Greenlit X-Men ’97

Seeing a favorable outcome, Feige was on board for anything Winderbaum would suggest. As the Ant-Man producer further said (via Men’s Health):

“Based on the response to that show, [Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige] was like, ‘Well, what else do you want to do?’ And the first thing I said was, ‘I want to revive X-Men: The Animated Series.’”

He said that the next thing they discussed was whether or not they had the music and then picked the most creative and talented X-Men lovers. Rebooting something so iconic could be either a brilliant idea or a blunder. It is for the fans to decide.

Watch X-Men’97 on Disney+.