Marvel recently revived its highly successful X-Men: The Animated Series from the 90s under the name of X-Men ’97 and the fans couldn’t just control their excitement. The showrunners of the show have even tried to bring back the original voice actors from X-Men: The Animated Series in order to keep the consistency in both series despite having a 30-year gap in release.
The director of X-Men ’97 talks about getting back the original cast
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.
As we saw in the first 2 episodes of X-Men ’97, the series has brought back some of the original voice actors who portrayed the roles of their characters in X-Men: The Animated Series back in the ’90s. The director of the series, Jake Castorena also recently opened up in an interview with Moviefone and talked about the importance of getting the original actors back on track. He said,
“That was one of those decisions that was just kind of already made. Once they knew they were going to make the show, it’s kind of a no-brainer. If you want to make a continuation, you must get the cast to continue.”
Jake Castorena further talked about how some of the voice actors from X-Men: The Animated Series have passed away and how it was a huge challenge to fill in their shoes. He said,
“Some of the voice actors are no longer with us, and they leave big shoes to fill. First and foremost, I am proud of our new cast stepping into these roles that they know are monuments to these characters that people know and love.
I think they’re knocking it out of the park. Not only that, but to get the blessing from the legacy cast on them has been nothing short of just awesome and quite honestly brought a tear to my eye. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s so great.'”
Alison Sealy-Smith, Lenore Zann, and Cathal J. Dodd are some of the voice actors who have returned for X-Men ’97.
Alison Sealy-Smith opens up about voicing the role of Storm
Storm is one of the most powerful superheroes of the X-Men franchise and for good reason as well. The Omega-level mutant has the ability to control the weather at her will and is arguably one of the selfless superheroes of the group.
Alison Sealy-Smith voices the character of Storm in X-Men ’97 and is one of the few voice actors who have reprised their roles from the original animated series. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith opened up about how she feels like she was in her element while voice-acting as Storm. She said,
“You can imagine somebody like me, who did absolutely nothing but Shakespeare for five years of my career there, I was made for these beautiful one-liners: ‘Summoning the power of the arctic winds!’ ‘Rise, desert sands!’ I was in my element.”
Despite her being a formidable superhero, Storm has had a rocky start to the series as we saw the Weather Witch ended up losing her powers in the very second episode of the series. While trying to save Magneto from X-Cutioner, Storm got shot by a bullet that permanently took away her powers.
The first 2 episodes of X-Men ’97 are currently streaming on Disney+.
