X-Men ’97 was a treat for every Marvel fan. The show has successfully recreated the nostalgia, thanks to Marvel boss Kevin Feige who insisted the show must bring the original cast of Fox show, X-Men: The Animated Series. It makes sense as X-Men ‘97 was the continuation of the classic animated show in the ’90s.
Lenore Zann who played Anna Marie a.k.a. Rogue in both the series alongside Cal Dodd’s Wolverine revealed that they had to go through the audition process again despite their almost confirmed reprisal of their roles. Fan-favorite Gambit actor A.J. LoCascio also joined Zann and Dodd in the process.
Lenore Zann And Cal Dodd’s Re-Audition For X-Men ’97
While Kevin Feige insisted on the return of the original cast of the Fox (now owned by Marvel Studios’ parent company Disney) show, X-Men: The Animated Series; Lenore Zann and Cal Dodd had to go through the audition process again for X-Men ’97. “By the way yeah I had to audition again, re-audition,” Dodd said appearing in an interview with IGN alongside the cast of the show. “Yeah, so did I,” Zann added to the conversation. “The scene that they picked [for the audition] was so obscure,” Dodd explained his scene.
“What do you mean? He doesn’t yell at anyone here, or scream or be ignorant or be funny, underhanded funny?” he added.
Zann joined the conversation saying, “They were the lines from the original show.”
“And I was like, ‘oh! It’s Rogue! I’ll just do Rogue.’ And so I did it, and sent it off. And about a month later, three weeks later, I got a call saying, ‘yeah, the producers want to meet with you on Zoom.’ So then we went on Zoom, and they got me to read with Meredith on Zoom, and then at the end of it they were like, ‘oh my god, Lenore, we just love you. Would you please be in the show? Because we really want you in the show.’ I was like, ‘absolutely! You got me.'”
They have gladly done and excelled in the final voicing of the show. Fans and critics embraced X-Men ’97 with open arms as well as their performance.
Gambit Actor A.J. LoCascio Also Revealed His Audition Process
A.J. LoCascio revealed that he used to imitate the voice of Wolverine and Gambit when he was a kid. “These voices live in my head,” LoCascio explained to IGN. It was “just something we’d say as a joke all the time and so that voice lived in me,” he added. LoCascio was the new addition to the X-Men ’97 cast as Gambit, and he has candidly revealed his experience joining the show.
“I got the audition it was like 20 voices and I was like I’m only auditioning for Gambit. I was like, I just want to be Gambit which is that I would never ever recommend anyone do that but I just spent put all my energy into that and then also just looking up… I was just like what are terms I could throw into this that are authentic and like is this accent wrong is this just like trying to bridge the gap between what Chris Potter did… and so, I really just focused on that and surreal to be here after that by the way like I’m still absorbing all of this is very new and weird.”
In the original series, Chris Potter (1992–1996), and Tony Daniels (1997) played the role of Gambit. Of course, LoCascio nailed it as well and fans have cheered the character and embraced the actor for voicing the mutant.
X-Men ’97 is now streaming on Disney+.
