“Hands were always tied with Wolverine because…”: X-Men ’97 May be Facing the Same Problem That Forced X-Men: Evolution Had to Nerf the Most Violent Mutant

Dealing with violent characters and their graphic storylines can definitely be a tricky affair when you’re making a show for kids. Unfortunately, that is exactly what has been happening with Marvel’s fan-favorite X-Men member, Wolverine for years.

Marvel recently revived its highly successful X-Men: The Animated Series from the 90s under the name of X-Men ’97. However, the problem with exploring some of the badass stories of Wolverine remains the same to this day.

Boyd Kirkland explains why the violent side of Wolverine was never explored in X-Men: Evolution

X-Men is one of Marvel’s most popular superhero teams. The team arguably comes 2nd in popularity right after The Avengers as the latter has gained a lot of admiration and acclaim since their live-action adaptation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

SUGGESTED

“What do you mean?”: X-Men ’97 Made Original Wolverine and Rogue Voice Actors Go Through the Audition Again Alongside Gambit Actor A.J. LoCascio

Over the years, Marvel has also made a lot of animated series, and live-action movies to explore the adventure and storylines of the mutant superheroes. However, some storylines from comics are way too dark or way too violent so they’re either not included or edited way too heavily to protect the show’s reviews and ratings.

SUGGESTED

X-Men ‘97: Why Wolverine Isn’t Considered an Omega Level Mutant Despite His Many Heroics That Defy Average Mutant Abilities?

Animated series like X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men: Evolution were targeted at a younger audience and that was mostly the reason why some more violent side of some superheroes were not explored in these series. Once in an interview, the producer of X-Men: Evolution, Boyd Kirkland explained the reason for not exploring some of Wolverine’s best stories. He said,

“Our hands were always tied with Wolverine because of the violent aspect of his power and nature, and because he was an adult (the network wanted all of our stories to focus mainly on the kids). That’s why X23 was a clever way to involve him in the storytelling.” (via AnimeSuperhero)

Laura Kinney is the real name of the mutant X-23 that Dr. Zander Rice created to be the perfect killing machine. X-23 has dual adamantium claws in both her palms and advanced regenerative healing much like her adoptive father, Wolverine.

We might not see a violent version of Wolverine in X-Men ’97 as well

Wolverine is one of the most badass, cool, and violent characters to appear in Marvel comics. However, we haven’t seen much of those sides of the character in media franchises as the character can just fly into a fit of rage at times hurting everyone and everything in sight.

SUGGESTED

Marvel’s Wolverine Game Must Integrate The Best Feature of Spider-Man 2 That Made the Sequel Infinitely Better Than the First Part

We saw a bit of those sides of the character in the movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine in which the character ends up fatally wounding his biological father. Other than being an incredible soldier, Logan is also a capable leader.

4 episodes of X-Men ’97 have been released so far and we haven’t seen a violent side of Wolverine as of yet. Although the show has been rated TV-14, it is still highly unlikely that we will be seeing Logan’s fits of rage or unhinged violence in the show because of the censorship. To be perfectly candid, if the exact storylines of comics were to be followed for Wolverine in X-Men ’97, the show definitely would have been rated ‘R’.

The first 4 episodes of X-Men ’97 are currently streaming on Disney+.