“To me, my X-Men” yelled Cyclops as he cemented his role as the leader of the X-Men. Well, at least, that’s what happened in the comic books and X-Men ’97. Having almost a central figure authority in the recently released animated show, the character of Cyclops has been getting much love and fame from around the world.
And that is how things were supposed to be before the live-action movies came into existence. Marvel President Kevin Feige made sure not to repeat the mistake that Fox Studios did in their live-action films which was one of the factors for the later decline of popularity of the X-Men films!
Cyclops Is The Leader of The X-Men in X-Men ’97!
In the comic books as well as the movies, Cyclops has always been the team leader in his team of mutants. Having a commanding personality, Cyclops has always been a powerful character in the comics but sadly, not in the live-action films.
Fox Studios decided to put Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine as the central figure throughout most of the X-Men films for several years. Although the character of Cyclops is omnipresent, the mutant is only seen breaking doors or objects with his powers. In the X-Men ’97 series, however, things are not as simple as they seem.
During the first two episodes, Cyclops has already been established as a leader figure. Not only that, but Cyclops’ powers have been put to better use rather than just breaking stuff! From deflecting attacks to using his laser as a thrust while landing, this Cyclops is truly an innovative character with more depth than any live-action X-Men films and people are loving him for it. And although Brad Winderbaum is the executive producer of the show, it seems that Kevin Feige doesn’t want to repeat the mistake that Fox Studios did with the live-action films and Cyclops!
Kevin Feige Doesn’t Want To Repeat The Same Mistakes As Fox Studios!
From X-Men back in 2000 till X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has been featured extensively and in a central authority through almost all of the movies. Since the character of Cyclops has been neglected often in live-action movies, Marvel President Kevin Feige decided to take a test of Brad Winderbaum (the executive producer of X-Men ’97).
In an interview with Men’s Health. here’s what Winderbaum had to say about Feige and his alleged test.
“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.”
He further continued,
“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.’”
Although the talks may not be directly related to the treatment of Cyclops, it seems that Brad Winderbaum and Beau DeMayo (creator of X-Men ’97) know what to take care of while making the animated show. Receiving a rating of 9/10 on IMDB and a whopping 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, X-Men ’97 is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
